Bodies in Action: Corporeal Agency and Democratic Politics

Abstract

A better appreciation of the material, distributed quality of human agency can illuminate subtle dynamics of domination and oppression and reveal resources for potentially liberatory political action. Materialist accounts of agency nevertheless pose challenges to the notion of personal responsibility that is so crucial to political obligation and democratic citizenship. To guard against this danger, we need to sustain the close connection between agency and a sense of selfhood that is individuated, reflexive, and responsive to norms. Yet we should acknowledge that reflexive selfhood is not the whole of individual agency for the sources of agency extend beyond the individual herself. We also need to recognize the ways that both reflexivity and norm-responsiveness are themselves embodied capacities. When properly conceived, a materialist view of agency can increase awareness of our often-unwitting contributions to systematic inequalities of power and extend our political responsibilities in emancipatory directions, thus holding great promise for democratic life.

Introduction to the special issue on transnational lived citizenship

“…While many explorations of transnationalism claim to ground theory, these generally conceptualize the 'ground' in a highly metaphorical way (Katz and Smith 1993;Sparke 2005). We also find that many of those involved in the relational theorization of citizenship resort to locally, nationally, regionally, or globally embedded illustrations and empirical studies, instead of other forms of spatial organizations and relationships (Purcell 2003;Tambakaki 2011; for similar solutions to the politics of citizenship, see Bennett 2005;Coole 2005;Krause 2011). For instance, citizenship studies that encompass spatial practices and embodied memories as important components of political belonging and identity are rare in the current scholarship.…”

Speaking for Nature: Hobbes, Latour, and the Democratic Representation of Nonhumans

“…In politics and political theory, and especially in theories of democracy, it remains useful to distinguish between humans and nonhumans for certain purposes. Among other things, nonhumans generally lack the capacities for critical refl ection and norm-responsiveness that make democracy possible (Krause, 2011). This means that nonhumans require a particular kind of political representation.…”

La digitalización de la conversación pública: redes sociales, afectividad política y democracia

“…Neuman et al, 2007). Esto significa, entre otras cosas, que no somos agentes soberanos (Krause, 2011). Ya que el yo protagonista de la agencia individual no ejerce pleno control de su actividad.…”