Dense Struggle (IV): The Ghostly Real

Dense Struggle (IV): The Ghostly Real

As I mentioned in the last post, one of the most perplexing circumstances that surrounded the appearance of the ghost in the refuge was that it occurred at the precise moment at which the group of IDPs formally entered into the realm of the official. It could have...
Dense Struggle (III): The Modern Uncanny

Dense Struggle (III): The Modern Uncanny

In the last two posts I have argued that the longue durée of capitalist modernity has implied an expansion of a material and social global ordering, and that this process is far from being free of emotional forces, even of an uncanny dimension. In my account, this...
Dense Struggle (II): Oh yes, that, our world

Dense Struggle (II): Oh yes, that, our world

In the preamble of the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels made the famous dictum: A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and...
Dense Struggle (I): Violence and the otherworldly

Dense Struggle (I): Violence and the otherworldly

How can we make sense of popular struggles in this period of late capitalist modernity? What do the experiences, voices, and visions of groups involved in such struggles tell us about the actual functioning of our world — a world mined with growing inequalities, ever...