The Problems of Resistance: Studies in Alternate Political Cultures (Radical Philosophy Today)

This volume seeks to bring into focus some of the main dimensions of political hegemony, including judicial repression, state terror, the structures of racialization, discrimination, and colonization. Against these, it then offers open-ended views of many different levels of resistance, from mass struggles and problems of national liberation to alternate ways of living one's intimate life within the community. The role of imagination, ideology, and critique in organizational activity, the problem of absorption by the hierarchy one resists, and modes of regeneration of political energies are all brought together as dimensions of cultures of resistance.

The essays here collected do not offer solutions but raise questions within four main themes: domination, cultural formation, reification, and transformation. Ultimately, the various perspectives are based on the concept that autonomy is the fundamental building block of democracy. The different issues involved are viewed as moments on a common political trajectory leading toward the liberation of the human spirit from repressive social and cultural forces.

Taken as a whole, these outstanding essays broaden our understanding of liberation and provide an excellent resource for philosophers and activists alike.