Creative insurgence of subjugated practices: non-capitalist practices and the interstices of capitalist modernity
Date
2010-01-13T22:21:12Z
Authors
Simpson, Mike
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Abstract
This thesis sets out to identify and problematise the Eurocentric proclivities that have characterised various approaches to anti-capitalist thought since the mid-nineteenth century. First, I consider the liberal democratic approaches of Eduard Bernstein and of Jürgen Habermas. Next, I consider the grand narrative approaches of Karl Marx and of Hardt and Negri as an alternative. I highlight the Eurocentric and imperialist tendencies of these approaches, while drawing out a series of considerations that must inform anti-capitalist theory if it is to remain committed to plurality and to anti-imperialist struggles. Finally, I explore the possibility of grounding anti-capitalist politics in the affirmation of the everyday, non-capitalist alternatives that already are being practised by subjects within the interstices of capitalism. I argue that by working to strengthen and proliferate these interstitial alternatives, anti-capitalist politics would not only prove far more accommodating to plurality than the previous approaches considered, but it would also hold far more transformative potential.
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capitalism, imperialism, anti-capitalism