16091

SoSe 20: Democratizing Disobedience: Critical Theory and Political Protest

Robin Celikates

Kommentar

The main aim of this seminar is to discuss the contours of a critical theory of ‘democratizing disobedience’ that bridges the gap between the commitment of critical theory to be grounded in actual social struggles and the undertheorized transformative potential of civil disobedience. This involves bringing two claims together: that disobedience is an essential part of struggles for democratization (‘from below’), and thus opens up one way to address the crisis of representative democracies without falling back into the non- or anti-democratic dynamics of right-wing populism, and that theorizing disobedience in a critical vein has to be democratized both methodologically and substantially in order to adequately grasp the democratizing potential of disobedience. We will read and discuss recent contributions by authors including Judith Butler, Axel Honneth, Sally Haslanger, Etienne Balibar, Candice Delmas and myself. Seminar sessions will be alternating between synchronous and asynchronous formats and include two guest lectures. We will also collaboratively work on a Wiki that will aim to provide a critical overview of current forms of protest. Schließen