Practices of sculpture and geography have collaborated ever since Stone Age humans hoisted up rocks to point them into the air. The ephemerality of life was rendered in a circle of forms and mass that celebrated the union of sky, earth and dwelling. Through the manipulation of stone, the land became a place, it became a home, it became situated and navigable. As millennia unfolded, the land was written with the story of itself. The creativity woven into the story of place is an evolution of material collaborations. In recent decades, academic geographers have explored the realms of creativity in their work, and sculptors have critically engaged with the nature of place. I have united these disciplines in the exploration of a truth of materials. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between making and place. The structure of my PhD focussed on the development of a transdisciplinary research environment that could host a range of creative practices around stone-working. I developed a long-term relationship with Trenoweth Dimension Granite Quarry, working as an apprentice sawman and mason. Here, I examined the everyday practices of labour and skill development, from which emerged deeper material and human interactions, that went on to inform my sculpture and modes of making. Arguing that granite has threads of relational agency embedded within its matrix, I initiated a series of practices that made use of my emerging knowledge as a granite-quarry worker, cast within experimental sculpture, texts, performance, photography and film. By formulating my methods around the vibrancy of matter, I disclosed new materialisms and more-than-human relations. This assemblage of documentation and artwork records and reflects on a series of practices and processes in tension. This productive tension arises from a re-rendering of artisanal practice as a research method; ushering in modes of representation as loops of experience and interpretation take place across different sites, spaces and times of mediation. The objective for the PhD research was to present a critically informed practice of sculpture-as-ethnography that could not only provide a model for practice-based research in general, but also significantly expand what might be meant by stone-work. This PhD by alternative submission is presented as a Commentary with an accompanying Digital Archive website.

Le corps humain représente un matériau de première instance dans l’œuvre romanesque de Sade. Au gré des voies de réflexion explorées par l’écrivain, le corps revêt indistinctement multiples formes et exprime différents sens. On se penchera d’abord sur le corps et ses diverses représentations dans le christianisme ; des représentations qui seront inversées par notre auteur, en vue de désaliéner cette entité de chair de toute contrainte religieuse. À la mainmise de l’Église sur le corps, Sade oppose les nouvelles hypothèses philosophiques tirées directement des nouvelles connaissances scientifiques de son siècle. On s’intéressera alors à la philosophie matérialiste qui a imprégné les écrits de notre auteur, et qui place la raison au centre de ses préoccupations, menant ainsi une réflexion expérimentale au moyen des sens. On verra que cette philosophie, profondément corporelle, aidera Sade à façonner un corps de plus en plus libre. Les nouvelles connaissances biologiques qu’on évoquera concernent essentiellement la reproduction humaine, et se matérialisent sous la théorie dite de génération. Cette théorie observe diverses thèses au cours du XVIIIe siècle. Sade opte pour celle qui sert sa pensée et le corps qu’il est en train de façonner. Le philosophe s’attaquera enfin à la morale et aux lois qui fondent sa société pour les détourner et libérer définitivement le corps du joug de la société. Enfin, on analysera les procédés et les techniques littéraires investis par notre écrivain pour mettre en place ce corps totalement émancipé. L’homme et son corps demeurent la première et la dernière instance de l’œuvre sadienne, toutes les voies de réflexion empruntées mènent au final à la naissance d’un corps qui se place au-dessus de toute considération religieuse ou sociale qui risquerait de l’asservir ou de l’avilir. / The human body serves the a primary material in the novels of Sade. Following the reflection paths explored by the writer, the body indistinctly takes many forms and expresses different meanings. This work will first focus on the body and its various representations in Christianity. These very same representations will be inverted by our author, to desalienate this being of flesh from all religious coercion . With regard to the stranglehold of the Church on the body, Sade opposes the new philosophical assumptions derived from the new scientific discoveries of his century. In this respect, our work will deal with the materialistic philosophy that impregnated his writings, and that places reason at the center of its concerns, leading an experimental reflection using the senses. We will see that through this philosophy deeply body-centred, Sade will shape a body to become more and more free. The new biological discoveries evoked in thiswork mainly concern human reproduction and "la théorie de génération"[the theory of generation]. This theory embodies several theses from the eighteenth century. Sade chooses the one that fits his thought and the body that he is shaping. The philosopher finally tackles societies’ morals and laws to divert and finally free the body from the clasps of society. Lastly, we analyze the literary processes and techniques utilized by our writer to set up this completely emancipated body. The human being and his body remain the first and last instance of Sade's work, borrowing reflection paths that ultimately lead to the birth of a body that is placed above any religious or social consideration which could enslave or degrade it.

Orientador: Sérgio Eduardo Montes Castanho / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T16:36:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sbardelotto_DeniseKloeckner_D.pdf: 10961869 bytes, checksum: 12b6e42597dfba467d2601e7ecf3a127 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: A presente tese analisa o Projeto Educacional da Itaipu Binacional, viabilizado nas três Vilas Habitacionais e no Canteiro de Obras da margem esquerda brasileira da Usina Hidrelétrica Binacional de Itaipu, entre 1974 e 1985. Fez parte deste projeto toda a estrutura ideológica implementada pela entidade, através da União de Construtoras - UNICON, responsável pelas obras civis de Itaipu. São analisadas as iniciativas de educação formal, efetivadas através do ensino regular do Anglo-Americano, técnico-profissionalizante do SENAI e Centro de Treinamento e Desenvolvimento da UNICON no Canteiro de Obras, e de alfabetização funcional e supletiva pela Escola do Canteiro; e não-formal, através das atividades culturais e desportivas realizadas pelos Centros Comunitários das Vilas Habitacionais e Canteiro de Obras. Resultante de conflitos diplomáticos entre Brasil, Paraguai e Argentina, a Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu foi construída em Foz do Iguaçu, região Oeste do Paraná, concretizando um dos grandes projetos dos governos militares no Brasil. O aumento da capacidade energética significava a infraestrutura necessária ao crescimento do parque industrial brasileiro, com o fortalecimento de indústrias nacionais dependentes de tecnologia externa e instalação de multinacionais e associadas. Porém, a construção da hidrelétrica gerou inúmeros impactos econômicos, ambientais, sociais e educacionais para Foz do Iguaçu e região Oeste do Paraná, devido ao alagamento de grandes áreas rurais e urbanas e inchaço populacional da cidade sede. Sob pressupostos do materialismo histórico-dialético, utilizei fontes bibliográficas, documentais e orais. O recorte histórico definido tem por justificativa a data de início e término da construção civil da Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu (1974-1985). A pesquisa me permitiu constatar que a educação formal e não-formal ofertada para os trabalhadores e seus dependentes na região do Projeto Itaipu foi diferenciada de acordo com a fração da classe trabalhadora a que eram destinadas, aprofundando a estratificação de classe que já era visível pelas diferenças qualitativas entre as Vilas Habitacionais A, B e C e alojamentos do Canteiro de Obras. Foram utilizadas estratégias para destinar educação de qualidade e voltada à "formação" generalista aos dependentes de trabalhadores dos altos níveis funcionais/fração de classe, enquanto aos trabalhadores e seus dependentes dos baixos níveis funcionais/fração de classe era oferta educação qualitativamente inferior, limitada ao "cuidado" e técnica-profissionalizante. Através da educação formal e não-formal o Projeto Educacional de Itaipu consolidou uma estrutura ideológica eficiente em disseminar valores éticos e morais de racionalidade, produtividade, disciplina, cooperação, respeito à hierarquia, civismo e meritocracia, adequados à manutenção da ordem nas Vilas Habitacionais e Canteiro de Obras e à formação da força de trabalho para as necessidades da obra, prioridade absoluta dos governos militares do Brasil e Paraguai / Abstract: This thesis analyzes the Educational Project of Itaipu , conducted in the three Villages Housing and Construction Works of the Brazilian left bank of the Itaipu Binational hydroelectric plant between 1974 and 1985. He was part of this project all the ideological structure implemented by the entity through the Builders Union - UNICON , responsible for the civil works of Itaipu. Formal education initiatives are analyzed , carried through the regular teaching of Anglo -American, technical and professional SENAI and Training and Development Center of UNICON Jobsite , and functional literacy and supplementary by the School of Construction ; and non- formal, through cultural and sporting activities carried out by Community Centers of VillagesHousing and Construction Site . Resulting diplomatic conflicts between Brazil , Paraguay and Argentina , Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant was built in Foz do Iguaçu , western Paraná , fulfilling one of the great projects of the military governments in Brazil. The power capacity meant the infrastructure necessary for growth of Brazilian industry , with the strengthening of national industries dependent on foreign technology and installation of multinational and associates. However, dam construction has generated numerous economic, environmental , social and educational impacts to Foz do Iguaçu and western Paraná , due to flooding of large rural and urban population and swelling of the host city . Under assumptions of historical and dialectical materialism , I used bibliographical, documentary and oral sources . The historical approach is justification set the start date and completion of construction of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant ( 1974-1985 ) . The research allowed me to see that the formal and non- formal education offered to employees and their dependents in the Itaipu project area was differentiated according to the fraction of the working class to which they were intended , deepening class stratification that was already visible by qualitative differences between the Villages Housing a, B and C and Construction Site lodges . Strategies were used to assign quality education and focused on " training " generalist to dependents of employees of high functional levels / class fraction , while the workers and their dependents of low functional levels / class fraction was offering qualitatively inferior education, limited to "care" and technical - vocational . Through formal and non - formal educational project of the Itaipu consolidated an effective ideological framework in spreading ethical and moral values of rationality , productivity , discipline, cooperation , respect for hierarchy , civility and meritocracy , necessary to maintain the order in the Housing and Villages Construction Works and training of the workforce to the needs of the work , absolute priority of the military governments of Brazil and Paraguay / Doutorado / Filosofia e História da Educação / Doutora em Educação

Orientador: Fernando Cezar de Macedo Mota / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T09:47:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aruto_PietroCaldeirini_M.pdf: 1521759 bytes, checksum: 79bf6131650ef8ed2bf00f5236f45676 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O objetivo desta dissertação é desenvolver o conceito de formação socioespacial dependente a partir do conceito de formação socioespacial definido por Milton Santos. De modo geral, o conceito trata da capacidade que o espaço tem de manifestar as condições históricas postas à produção social no modo de produção capitalista. Uma vez que sua origem encontra-se no embate das correntes marxistas em torno da concepção de formação econômico-social, resgata-se criticamente no primeiro capítulo essas contribuições para aprofundar o conceito proposto, especialmente no que tange à associação entre as relações de produção e as mudanças espaciais. A redefinição metodológica que se propõe a partir da formação socioespacial dependente busca compreender as transformações históricas que se operam entre e dentro das formações socioespaciais, ou seja, leva à discussão de duas categorias centrais da dimensão espacial: nação e região; desenvolvidas nos capítulos 2 e 3. Para ir além do plano eminentemente teórico, a investigação é centrada na análise da formação sociespacial dependente da América Latina, onde as relações de produção no continente são especificamente marcadas pela superexploração da força de trabalho. Dessa forma, o resultado da investigação permite compreender, dentro da totalidade do modo de produção capitalista, a associação entre a produção social do espaço e relação de produção nas formações socioespaciais dependentes, mostrando que o espaço é estruturado e transformado para garantir as condições de reprodução da força de trabalho abaixo do seu valor / Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to develop the socio-spatial-dependent formation concept from the socio-spatial formation concept as defined by Milton Santos. In general, the concept is concerned with the capability of space to manifest the historical conditions underlying the social production in the capitalist mode of production. Once its origin lies in the shock within Marxism regarding the social-economic formation concept , it is recovered critically in the first chapter these contributions to deepen the proposed concept, especially the association between relations of production and spatial changes. The proposed methodological redefinition seeks to understand the historical transformations that operate in socio-spatial formations, ie, it leads to the discussion of two central categories of the spatial dimension: nation and region; to be carried out in chapters 2 and 3. Extrapolating the theoretical level, research is focused on the analysis of Latin America socio-dependent formation, once the relations of production are specifically characterized by overexploitation of the labour power. Thus, the result of research allows understanding, within the totality of the capitalist mode of production, the association of social production of space and relation of production in the dependent socio-spatial formations, showing that space is structured and transformed to ensure the conditions of reproduction of the labour power below its value / Mestrado / Desenvolvimento Economico, Espaço e Meio Ambiente / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

Orientador: Débora Cristina Fonseca / Resumo: A presente pesquisa discute a temática da adolescência/juventude em conflito com a lei utilizando-se de referencial teórico fundamentado na perspectiva sócio histórica, que compreende os conceitos de juventude e ato infracional a partir da relação dialética entre o sujeito e o seu meio. O principal objetivo da pesquisa consistiu em investigar como os jovens autores de ato infracional compreendem as medidas socioeducativas e (re)conhecem sua efetividade. Os demais objetivos foram identificar as atividades desenvolvidas pelos jovens durante o cumprimento de medida socioeducativa, relacionando tais atividades com as diretrizes do SINASE (BRASIL, 2006); e analisar e refletir a respeito das possibilidades de que a socioeducação se constitua enquanto um espaço social e educativo capaz de proporcionar alternativas para a formação humana, bem como de garantir os direitos dos jovens e de suas famílias. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com sete jovens em cumprimento de medidas de Liberdade Assistida (LA) e/ou Prestação de Serviços à Comunidade (PSC). Os dados produzidos pelas entrevistas foram analisados e discutidos com base no materialismo histórico dialético, através de categorias e subcategorias. Os resultados obtidos por meio das falas dos participantes desvelam contradições presentes nas medidas socioeducativas em meio aberto. Revelam que a política de socioeducação não tem considerado as necessidades reais da(s) juventude(s) atendidas pelo sistema socioe... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present research discusses the theme of adolescence/youth in conflict with the law, using the theoretical reference based on socio-historic perspective, which understands the concepts of youth and infraction from dialectical relationship between the subject and his environment. The main objective of this research was to investigate how the young who committed the infraction understand the socio-educational measures and recognize their effectiveness. The other objectives were to identify the activities developed by them when obeying the socio-educational measures, relating these activities with SINASE guidelines (BRASIL, 2006); analyze and reflect about the possibilities the socio-education consists in a social and educational space, able to provide alternatives to human formation, as well as ensure the families' and young’s rights. Therefore, semistructured interviews were realized with seven young complying Assisted Freedom (AF) and/or Community Service (SC). The data produced by these interviews were analyzed and discussed based on dialectical historical materialism, through categories and sub-categories. The results obtained by participants’ speeches unveil contradictions present in the socio-educational measures in opened environment. They reveal the socio- educational politics has not considered the real necessities of the youth served by socio-educational system. The education and the job are not designed in a formative dimension, essential to form an emancipated an... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Cette thèse, constituée de trois essais, porte sur les concepts interdépendants de matérialisme et de consommation compensatoire. Le premier essai passe en revue les différentes conceptualisations du matérialisme, ainsi que ses causes et ses conséquences. J’analyse comment les différentes conceptualisations peuvent expliquer les variations des travaux de recherche et je propose un cadre conceptuel général pour analyser la recherche sur le matérialisme. Je présente également les travaux sur la notion de consommation compensatoire qui renvoie à l'utilisation et à la possession de biens matériels pour faire face aux menaces portant sur l’identité personnelle. Pour conclure ce premier essai, j’ouvre le débat sur l’opportunité de plusieurs travaux de recherche portant sur la consommation compensatoire. Dans les deux essais suivants, j’approfondis plus particulièrement les questions liées à la consommation compensatoire.Dans le deuxième essai, je reviens sur les recherches montrant que dédommager des aspects menacés de l'identité personnelle avec des produits symboliques (c'est-à-dire la consommation compensatoire intra-domaine) provoque des personnes pour ruminer les menaces sur leur identité personnelle et diminue leur ressources de maîtrise de soi.Je constate qu'une telle diminution arrive uniquement lorsque les produits sont explicitement liés avec les aspects menacés de leur identité personnelle et non quand ils sont implicitement liés avec les aspects menacés.Le troisième essai se focalise sur l'efficacité de la consommation compensatoire intra-domaine et plus précisément sur la possibilité de restaurer les éléments endommagés de l'identité personnelle. Mes résultats montrent que la restauration de l'identité personnelle est contrariée lorsque les individus sont rétribués avec des produits ayant des liens explicites avec les aspects menacés de leur identité personnelle et non lorsque ces liens sont implicites. Les liens explicites rappellent aux consommateurs les menaces et empêchent le processus de réparation de l'identité personnelle. Je teste également une condition limite de ces résultats et montre que lorsque la menace sur l’identité personnelle est implicite (par exemple, subtile ou non évidente), même les produits ayant des liens explicites peuvent permettre la réparation de l'identité personnelle. / This dissertation comprises three essays that pertain to the interelated constructs of materialism and compensatory consumption. In Essay 1, I review research on the conceptualizations, causes, and consequences of materialism, analyze how adopting different conceptualizations may account for variations in research outcomes, and suggest a broad framework for analyzing materialism research. I also introduce research on compensatory consumption, which refers to the use and possession of material goods to address self-identity threats. In the end, I discuss some ideas for future research, particularly those related to compensatory consumption. In the next two essays, I investigate specific questions on compensatory consumption. In Essay 2, I revisit extant research that shows that compensating with products symbolic of threatened aspects of self-identity (i.e., within-domain compensatory consumption) causes threat-related rumination and depletes self-control resources of individuals. I find that such depletion occurs only when products are explicitly connected to the threatened aspects of self, and not when they are implicitly connected to the threatened aspects. In Essay 3, I examine the efficacy of within-domain compensatory consumption, that is, whether it restores self-identity on aspects damaged by a self-threat. I find that self-identity repair is thwarted when threatened individuals compensate with products having explicit connections to the threatened identity domain, but not when these connections are kept implicit. Explicit, but not implicit, connections remind consumers of the threat, thereby impeding self-repair. I also test a boundary condition to these finding, and show that when the self-threat itself is implicit (e.g., subtle, non-obvious), even products with explicit connections can provide self-repair.

This dissertation aims to reconfigure 'materialism' against the contemporary context of philosophy. By carrying out a meta-philosophical investigation on the logical schemas, philosophical operations and deployments of the major philosophical projects of Albert Lautman (1908-1944), Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), and Alain Badiou (1937- ), i.e., Lautman's philosophy of mathematics (especially the dialectic governing his theory of 'mathematical genesis'), Deleuze's philosophy of difference (especially the logic of event and metamorphosis underlying the 'Deleuzian genesis' extracted from Chapter IV and V of Difference and Repetition), and Badiou's mathematical ontology (especially the fundamental logical schema of his mature ontology presented in Being and Event), this dissertation attempts to show how the works of these three philosophers are contributive to the aforementioned task of the reconfiguration of materialist philosophy. In terms of the problematics of 'formalization of the real', the 'transcendental methodology', and the 'immanent principle' of reality shared by all these three philosophical projects, I propose that their works can be defined as a particular type of materialist philosophy that I call 'transcendental materialism'; and this 'transcendental materialism', in turn, ought to be comprehended according to a modern reading of Platonism, i.e., the non-orthodox re-articulation of Platonic philosophy comprised of Lautman's unorthodox-realist Platonism, Deleuze's materialism as overturned Platonism, and Badiou's materialism with the Platonic Idea. I conclude that Lautman, Deleuze, and Badiou are three philosophers of 'transcendental materialism' knotted by this modern Platonism. On the strength of the 'transcendental materialism' constituted in view of the investigation presented by this dissertation, I intend to show that Lautman's philosophy of mathematics offers the proper perspective or the 'condition' for a genuine comprehension of Deleuze's major philosophical project in the late 1960s; on the basis of this genuine comprehension, Deleuze's philosophical project, which concentrates in the study of the transcendental logic of the real instead of providing empirical knowledge of sensible objects and material entities, ought to be categorized as 'transcendental materialism', a category that is also competent to define Badiou's philosophical project, i.e., 'a materialism without object/matter'; and therefore, the philosophical demarcation within contemporary materialist philosophy ought not to be simply portrayed as 'Badiou vs. Deleuze', 'dialectical materialism vs. vitalist materialism'. The genuine philosophical demarcation within materialism today is 'Idea against Matter'. 'Transcendental materialism' is 'a materialism with the Idea' or 'a materialism of the Idea' which is against the 'naïve materialism' or the 'metaphysics of the Matter'. In case transcendental materialism might have been conceived as a new 'metaphysics', it is the metaphysics of the imperceptible, the inexistent, and the inconsistent. The 'material reality', after 'transcendental materialism', is 'non-All'. Concerning the far more complicated confrontations between different trends of contemporary materialist/realist philosophy, my proposal of constituting the 'transcendental materialism' can be considered as an attempt to reconfigure the current debates on materialist philosophy: to reorganize the dialogues, for instance, between Badiou and his opponents -- 'object-oriented-ontology', 'speculative realism', and 'non-philosophy'; to integrate Quentin Meillassoux's project into transcendental materialism in terms of their shared 'transcendental methodology'; and, most importantly, to 'radicalize' materialist/realist philosophy towards a theory of practice.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study is a philosophical analysis of the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy and legislation, including the related NHI Fund, with a view to assessing its prospects in realising Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The NHI system is about ensuring universal access to quality healthcare for all. The rationale is to provide free healthcare for all at the point of care/service. This legislation has the potential to transform, on the one hand, the relationship between the public and private healthcare sectors and, on the other, the nature of public funding for healthcare. Part of the challenge with the NHI system is that it seeks to provide healthcare for all, but by seeking to integrate the private sector it runs the risk of commercializing healthcare. The study is philosophical in that it holds that ideas have consequences (and conversely actions have presuppositions with certain meanings). In part, it aims to show that an implementing mechanism of the NHI system as presently envisaged has socio-political and economic implications with fundamental contradictions within it; for it seeks to incorporate the private healthcare sector in offering free public healthcare services. This introduces a tension for private healthcare services operate with a neoliberal outlook and methodology which is at odds with a public approach that is based on a socialist outlook. The analysis may make explicit conceptual and ideological tensions that will have practical consequences for healthcare. Much of the commentary on the NHI system have focused on the practical consequences for healthcare; my intervention is to explore and critically assess the various philosophical assumptions that lie behind these practical concerns. Some of these practical consequences are related to the possibility that healthcare is likely to become commercialized and the public healthcare sector will remain in a crisis. This study argues for the provision of access to high quality healthcare facilities for all members of the South African population. Healthcare must be provided free at the point of care through UHC legislation or by the setting up of the NHI Fund as financing mechanism. The study provides reason for the decommercialization of healthcare services completely – that is for eliminating private healthcare from contracting with the NHI Fund. Essentially, it argues for the claim that healthcare should not be traded in the market system as a commodity and that the NHI system in its current incarnation seeks to do precisely that. I further argue that in theory and in practice the neoliberal and socialist assumptions underlying the NHI system in its present formulation do not fit together. On the contrary, rather than a two-tiered system incorporating the private and public healthcare sectors, the dissertation argues for a different way of conceptualizing the NHI system that privileges the latter.

In this Thesis, influenced by Geert’s and van der Tuin’s (2016) diffractive reading of Beauvoir and Irigaray, I propose the methodology of  diffractive watching and watching diffractively as another tool for film analysis while engaging in an exploration of the potentials and limitations presented in the process. I find the concept of diffraction to be of significant merit within feminist new materialist research and to that end, I am interested in assessing the concept’s versatility and in verifying its methodological value.  Therefore, in my analysis,  I aspire to explore  diffractive watching  as a set intention and methodology and watching diffractively as an active process and the different implications that will result  if diffractive watching is  applied as a lens and/or employed as a tool. Moreover, I consider the mapping of the films’ cartographical account to be a constituent part of diffractive watching which in this case functioned as the starting point for the analysis.  To illustrate the becoming of this methodology, I take two films, i.e., Bladerunner (1982) and Bladerunner 2049 (2017) as my case study.

My thesis is focused on critical analysis of political thought of American philosopher Judith Butler. Butler is concerned with the relationship between individual identity and collective subjectivity, and her works - which caused many critical reactions - represent one of the most interesting discussion in the field of feminist political philosophy. Butler is mainly concerned with the question, how various political strategies (eg. feminism) could be based on common interests of various agents, and not on their supposedly stable identity (eg. sex and gender). Her criticism of unproblematized "natural" identities is important not only to the constitution of any individual identity, but also for the notion of the political dimension of a collective subject. The introductory chapters of my thesis are concerned with early thought of Butler, mainly with her critical relationship to the "second wave" feminism, and with her notion of the performative constitution of gender identity. Next chapters explore the shift in her thinking from analysis of gender and sex towards more general themes of political thought: nation, race, class, universalism, state censorship, possibility of resistance or emergence of a collective subject without stable unifying principle. I also try to analyze selected critical...