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Book Details
Abstract
The idea of the imagination is as evocative as it is elusive. Not only does the imagination allow us to project ourselves beyond our own immediate space and time, it also allows us to envision the future, as individuals and as collectives. The radical imagination, then, is that spark of difference, desire and discontent that can be fanned into the flames of social change. Yet what precisely is the imagination and what might make it ‘radical’? How can it be fostered and cultivated? How can it be studied and what are the possibilities and risks of doing so?
This book seeks to answer these questions at a crucial time. As we enter into a new cycle of struggles marked by a worldwide crisis of social reproduction, scholar-activists Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish explore the processes and possibilities for cultivating the radical imagination in dark times.
A lively and crucial intervention in radical politics, social research and social change, and the collective visions and cultures that inspire them.
Max Haiven is an assistant professor in the Division of Art History and Critical Studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and co-director of the Radical Imagination Project (radicalimagination.org). He is author of Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power: Capitalism, Creativity and the Commons (Zed Books, 2014) and Cultures of Financialization: Fictitious Capital in Popular Culture and Everyday Life. More information can be found at maxhaiven.com.
Alex Khasnabish is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Mount Saint Vincent University and co-director of the Radical Imagination Project (radicalimagination.org). He is the author of Zapatistas: Rebellion from the Grassroots to the Global (Zed Books, 2010) and Zapatismo beyond Borders, and co-editor (with Jeffrey Juris) of Insurgent Encounters: Transnational Activism, Ethnography, and the Political. More information can be found at alexkhasnabish.com.
'I deserted the academy for activism over ten years ago, but this book reminds me that there are some scholars who really do radicalize their research processes so that the university once again becomes a tool of post-capitalist struggle rather than a feather in the neoliberal crown. A timely reminder for scholars to get their hands dirty, immerse themselves in radical movements and write for change rather than academic careers.'
John Jordan, artist, activist and co-founder of the direct action protest movement Reclaim the Streets.
'For Haiven and Khasnabish the "Radical Imagination" is the most important tool of resistance to neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on a breathtaking range of examples, they urge us to learn from and understand the knowledge produced within radical political movements. This impressive book is a must-read for those committed to radical social change and concerned with producing alternate worlds.'
Imogen Tyler, senior lecturer of sociology, Lancaster University and author of Revolting Subjects
'The Radical Imagination offers astute insights into the ways capitalism and crisis constrain our social and political imaginaries. This is a compelling book, highly readable and full of possibility. A welcome contribution to the kinds of engaged research needed right now.'
Emma Dowling, senior lecturer in sociology, Middlesex University
'Theoretically sophisticated and politically grounded, The Radical Imagination challenges us to think beyond the limits of both contemporary social movement organizing and scholarship.'
Lesley Wood, assistant professor of sociology, York University
'This book is an important and thought-provoking tool for activists and scholars. It is a sort of dialogical manual, bringing the reader into a conversation on what the radical imagination is and can be. While questioning, the authors suggest alternative ways of thinking about important issues, such as the meaning of success, failure, research and methodology - all from below, and grounded in the thoughts and experiences of others involved in movements.'
Marina Sitrin, author of They Can't Represent Us! and Everyday Revolutions
'The Radical Imagination is a fantastic resource for both social movements and the scholars who study them. It insists that social transformation requires research and that the process of research should itself be transformative. It crackles with new ideas and innovative approaches while asking that most important of questions: what would it mean for social movements to win?'
Keir Milburn, lecturer in political economy and organisation, University of Leicester, and co-author of Moments of Excess: Movements, Protests and Everyday Life
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
About the authors | ii | ||
Title Page | iii | ||
Copyright | iv | ||
Contents | v | ||
Acknowledgements | vii | ||
Introduction | The importance of the radical imagination in dark times | 1 | ||
What is the radical imagination? | 2 | ||
Social movements in the age of austerity | 8 | ||
Research as enclosure and as commons | 12 | ||
Learning from failure | 17 | ||
Outline and preliminaries | 20 | ||
Part one | Solidarity research | 27 | ||
One | The methods of movements: academic crisis and activist strategy | 29 | ||
Crisis | 31 | ||
Research, enclosure and academic capital | 34 | ||
Social movement scholarship and the politics of knowledge production | 41 | ||
Social movements, stories and ethnography | 48 | ||
The vocation of research | 55 | ||
Convoking the radical imagination and the politics of prefiguration | 61 | ||
Amidst the crisis maelstrom: research and the university | 64 | ||
Two | Convoking the radical imagination | 67 | ||
Context and practice: the Radical Imagination Project in Halifax | 68 | ||
Diagram of the Radical Imagination Project | 73 | ||
Taking stock | 74 | ||
Community responses | 77 | ||
Convocation and the research horizon | 84 | ||
Part two | Dwelling in the hiatus | 89 | ||
Three | The crisis of reproduction | 91 | ||
Crisis theory and social reproduction | 97 | ||
Socializing the crisis | 106 | ||
The death and afterlife of the middle class | 112 | ||
The crisis of movement reproduction | 117 | ||
Four | Reimagining success and failure | 122 | ||
The Greimas square of success and failure | 124 | ||
Social movements and the hiatus between (not-)success and (not-)failure | 125 | ||
The expanded square of social movements | 126 | ||
Solidarity research: dwelling in the hiatus | 133 | ||
The expanded movement research square | 134 | ||
Whither failurism? | 137 | ||
Radical therapy | 139 | ||
Conclusion: beyond the middle-class imaginary | 143 | ||
Part three | Making space, making time | 147 | ||
Five | The life and times of radical movements | 149 | ||
The co-optation of radicalism in the anglophone North Atlantic | 155 | ||
The rise and fall of the New Left | 165 | ||
The times of movement reproduction | 173 | ||
Six | The temporalities of oppression | 179 | ||
The making of time | 190 | ||
Reproducing otherwise: beyond oppression and exploitation | 198 | ||
Part four | The methods of movements | 207 | ||
Seven | Imagination, strategy and tactics | 209 | ||
From ontology to epistemology to methods to ethics | 211 | ||
Radicalizing the research imagination | 216 | ||
The research imagination | 217 | ||
The expanded model of the research imagination | 219 | ||
Opening time for the imagination | 223 | ||
From imagination to strategy to tactics (and back) | 225 | ||
The movement imagination | 226 | ||
Occupy | 233 | ||
Implications: ‘diversity of tactics’ as symptom | 238 | ||
Eight | Towards a prefigurative methodology | 243 | ||
References | 256 | ||
Index | 267 |