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Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations, Collective Theorization
What is the relationship of radical theory to movements for social change? In a world where more and more global struggles are refusing vanguard parties and authoritarian practices, does the idea of the detached intellectual, observing events from on high, make sense anymore? In this powerful and unabashedly militant collection, over two dozen academic authors and engaged intellectuals—including Antonio Negri and Colectivo Situaciones—provide some challenging answers. In the process, they redefine the nature of intellectual practice itself.
The book opens with the editors’ provocative history of the academy’s inherent limitations and possibilities. The essays that follow cover a broad embedded intellectuals in increasingly corporatized universities, research projects in which factory workers and academics work side by side, revolutionary ethnographies of the global justice movement, and meditations on technology from the branches of a tree-sit in Scotland. What links them all is a collective and expansive re--imagining of engaged intellectual work in the service of social change. In a cultural climate where right-wing watchdog groups seem to have radical academics on the run, this unapologetic anthology is a breath of fresh air.
The book opens with the editors’ provocative history of the academy’s inherent limitations and possibilities. The essays that follow cover a broad embedded intellectuals in increasingly corporatized universities, research projects in which factory workers and academics work side by side, revolutionary ethnographies of the global justice movement, and meditations on technology from the branches of a tree-sit in Scotland. What links them all is a collective and expansive re--imagining of engaged intellectual work in the service of social change. In a cultural climate where right-wing watchdog groups seem to have radical academics on the run, this unapologetic anthology is a breath of fresh air.
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2007
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127 people want to read
About the author
Stevphen Shukaitis
15 books60 followersStevphen Shukaitis is an editor at Autonomedia and lecturer at the University of Essex. He is the author of Imaginal Machines: Autonomy & Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life (Autonomedia, 2009) and editor (with Erika Biddle and David Graeber) of Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations // Collective Theorization (AK Press, 2007). His research focuses on the emergence of collective imagination in social movements and the changing compositions of cultural and artistic labor.
Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, Shukaitis became interested in radical politics and art through the punk scene and spent several years putting out DIY albums and organizing shows. He moved to the NYC area to become more involved in the anti-globalization movement. He then become involved in a number of media projects, working with Rise Up Radio on WBAI, Ever Reviled Records, joining the Autonomedia editorial collective, and writing for a number of independent publications.
In 2004 Shukaitis moved to Amsterdam to edit the "Life Beyond the Market" issue of Greenpepper Magazine, subsequently deciding to move to the UK to pursue a PhD through research around issues of class composition, autonomy, and self-organization. In the years since then he has lived between New York and London, and currently coordinates an outpost of Autonomedia operations in the UK. He is the founder and editor of Minor Compositions, an imprint of Autonomedia.
Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, Shukaitis became interested in radical politics and art through the punk scene and spent several years putting out DIY albums and organizing shows. He moved to the NYC area to become more involved in the anti-globalization movement. He then become involved in a number of media projects, working with Rise Up Radio on WBAI, Ever Reviled Records, joining the Autonomedia editorial collective, and writing for a number of independent publications.
In 2004 Shukaitis moved to Amsterdam to edit the "Life Beyond the Market" issue of Greenpepper Magazine, subsequently deciding to move to the UK to pursue a PhD through research around issues of class composition, autonomy, and self-organization. In the years since then he has lived between New York and London, and currently coordinates an outpost of Autonomedia operations in the UK. He is the founder and editor of Minor Compositions, an imprint of Autonomedia.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 14, 2010
If left wing grad students and PhDs were billed for wasting reader’s time, ( ten dollars per hour, per reader would perhaps be fair), books like this would never be published.
I read it cover to cover ( parts multiple times over) and all I got from the experience was a vague sense of having been overwhelmed by pretentious verbiage, the sort of verbiage which tries to make the same old social democratic post 77’ politics of capitulation sound hip,(with a dash of Marcos thrown in for good measure).
I read it cover to cover ( parts multiple times over) and all I got from the experience was a vague sense of having been overwhelmed by pretentious verbiage, the sort of verbiage which tries to make the same old social democratic post 77’ politics of capitulation sound hip,(with a dash of Marcos thrown in for good measure).
April 7, 2014
While it's nice to see a book that looks at the relationship between anarchists and academia -- especially one that is aware of the problems and contradictions inherent in such a role -- this book didn't really grab my attention. There are some interesting essays, but overall its just kind of mediocre.
September 1, 2008
Really good times. Some chapters I'll say was more interesting than other chapters. But then again that was part of the beauty, being that each chapter a different essay and approach by a different author. While ago I read it, very good times.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews