The thesis begins by enquiring into relationship between politics and public order in a world of change. The view is put forward that political activity crucial in maintaining an order which enables men to coordinate their activities. The concept of order is then examined and the way in which change is significant in the establishment of individual identity in a shared public world is explored (Chapter 1: ‘Order, Change and identity’). The thesis then moves to a consideration of what it means to be a member of such a place order and of a civil society in particular (Chapter 2: ‘Membership and Citizenship’). Being a member I seen as accepting certain rights and duties are specified in civil society and the obligations which they impose of then examined (Chapter 3: ‘Law and Obligation’). In the following chapter the character of authority an the role it plays in establishing and enforcing the conditions of membership in civil society are then considered (Chapter 5: ‘Political institutions and Organisations’). When these conditions are not readily complies with, coercion may be necessary, and its role in maintenance of public order is examined (chapter 6: ‘Coercion, Violence and Public Order’). The debate which preceded that passage of any law creating obligation is the concern of the following chapter (Chapter 7: ‘political Talk’), and the thesis moves on to an examination of how such debate is brought to a close (Chapter 8: ‘Political Conventions’). These district aspect of political activity taken together constitute over time a characteristic way of going about politics which has a prescriptive force (Chapter 9: ‘tradition’). Finally, the successful maintenance of a relatively continuous public order is seen to lie in the possibilities it upholds for freedom (Chapter 10: 'Freedom and Order').

The present thesis attempts to address one of the fundamental questions of political philosophy -what is the political? - by theorising it in terms of a political space. It is assumed here that the political cannot first be determined in some substantial or normative way; the political, as distinguished from politics, constitutes the utmost ground of human living together. Political space refers precisely to this problematic field that determines human existence in its entirety. The introduction briefly sketches the initial conception of political space, understood as an inquiry into the conditions of possibility of political experience. The first part deals with Immanuel Kant's political thought, and tries to establish the concept of publicity (in its both affirmative and negative formulations) as a central political idea which integrates his doctrine of right (Rechtslehre) with his maxims of Enlightenment. After this initial outline, the main attention of the thesis focuses on two outstanding political thinkers of the last century: Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt. The second part argues, with respect to Schmitt, that his notorious friend-enemy distinction— which serves as the criterion of the political-presupposes the condition which has been left throughout in its German original: Öffentlichkeit (publicity, or public realm). It is argued, more generally, that the concept of the political has the structure of publicity. The subsequent inquiry into the concept of an Öffentlichkeit attempts to flesh out its nature, status, and political potential. The third part, dealing with Arendt's political thought, opens up anew the topic of an Öffentlichkeit by utilizing Arendtian conceptual tools in order to analyse and articulate further the exceptional and yet promising nature of this public realm. Finally, the conclusion recapitulates once again the basic motives and insights of this study, and briefly indicates certain parallel theoretical trends which testify to the importance and relevance of the subject matter which has been explored here.

No description available.

No description available.

This is a study of the continuing capacity of a 'community in unity' to shape discussions of future f i,jII ! .. political possibilities despite the prevalence of claims about multiculturalism, network societies and global communities. It asks: How does the idea of a community in unity persistcntly dominate attempts to imagine what community might be? And what can we do to disrupt this reification of a community in unity and open up different possibilities? The central claim is that the commanding authority of a community in unity shapes even the most robust attempts to resist it. The argument begins with a study of the ways in which Benedict Anderson, Emest Gellner and others are complicit in presuming the necessity of a community in unity. The thesis then proceeds to explore some of the general forms through which accounts of a community in unity have been articulated in key texts by Max Weber and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It focuses specifically on assumptions about temporality that are expressed in these fOlms which lead in tum to a study of the politics of origins. The analysis considers how these forms constrain attempts to think differently about our political futures and how these constraints might be disrupted. The thesis then identifies the approach of 'perfom1ativity', as developed by Judith Butler. and Homi • Bhabha, as a resource for developing different political imaginarie~. This leads me to a study of urban . writings, by Walter Benjamin in particular, and to offer a comparative analysis of the possibilities for disruption presented by the city. It concludes with a case study of political response to the bombings in London on 7th July 2005 and, using this as an example of a broader problem, finds that the idea of a community in unity has the capacity to prevail over ~ltemative possibilities identified in the urban context. Keywords: 'community; unity; temporality; origins; nations; cities; subjectivity; performativity; ontology.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, Guy Debord’s concept of ‘the spectacle’ re-emerged in the work of a variety of theorists as a critical prism through which the attacks and subsequent ‘War on Terror’ could be approached. Debord’s first book on the spectacle (1967) was written in the context of France’s post-war boom; his later reflections, contained in a series of minor works written throughout the seventies and eighties, are heavily influenced by Italy’s ‘Years of Lead’ and a broader geopolitical climate of armed struggle, terrorism, counter-insurgency and espionage. Nearly all post-9/11 invocations of Debord’s concept draw on the version elucidated in Debord’s 1967 book, with its emphasis on commodity fetishism, ideology, and alienation, and fail to engage his later work and its focus on terrorism, secrecy, and conspiracy. Among those that do in fact reference Debord’s later work are several writers whose work could pejoratively be labelled ‘conspiracy theory’. Looking at Debord’s oeuvre as whole, and investigating how it combines a critique of late capitalism in its totality with parapolitcal concerns of ‘systemic clandestinity’, Spectacular Developments: Guy Debord’s Parapolitical Turn provides a bolstered conception of the spectacle that aims to reconfigure the conceptual foundations of this debate. This conception of the spectacle allows one to approach the 9/11 attacks and all that followed in their wake with both a precision and a breadth lacking in these other works, demonstrating the superficiality of readings that make the concept synonymous with the mass media or that attempt to unravel nefarious conspiracies of power. Simultaneously, this approach foregrounds the epistemological and strategic challenges faced by researchers, politicians and activists working in and on the society of the spectacle.

The discourse of the war on terrorism of the George W. Bush administration is used as a case study and a platform to assess the ideas of Michel Foucault on discourse analysis and power. Foucauldian notions prove to be useful tools for highlighting several aspects of the discourse, such as the link between knowledge and power, the construction of the concept of the terrorist, the role of identity in regards to security practices, or biopolitics as the management of life in the context of the war on terrorism. However, a number of specificities in regards to power relations and discursive practices escape a Foucauldian approach. These are revealed by stressing the importance of agency, facts and events for discourse analysis; and by complementing a Foucauldian perspective with the perspectives of alternative authors, such as Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Giorgio Agamben or Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, among others. The process of assessing Foucauldian discourse analysis allows to simultaneously accomplish a secondary objective of analyzing the discourse of the war on terrorism itself.