Handbook

The aim of this subject is to examine a range of political concepts and theories, and to expand the scope of what should be counted as part of “the political”. Rather than limit our understanding of “the political” to formal systems of power and authority and the ideologies that represent these systems, in this subject we understand “the political” as the public field where rule and domination are problematised. Hence, “the political” refers to the multiplicity of forces, structures, problems, and orientations that shape our collective life. We enter the frame of “the political” wherever our lives together are staked and wherever collective action could make a difference to the outcome.
In this context, political concepts are conceived in this subject as a forum for conversation and constructive debate rather than the construction of an encyclopaedic ideal. Some of the concepts we will be exploring are: regime, democracy, capitalist reproduction and social reproduction, neoliberalism and social insecurity, debt, patriarchy, political violence, coloniality and decolonisation, surveillance capitalism, racial resentment, and more.