Re-Imagining a Politics of Life: From Governance of Order to Politics of Movement

173 Pages·2014·2.02 MB·English

by  Leonie Ansems de Vries

Re-Imagining a Politics of Life

Re-Imagining a Politics of Life
From Governance of Order to Politics of
Movement
Leonie Ansems de Vries
London•NewYork
PublishedbyRowman&LittlefieldInternational,Ltd.
UnitA,WhitacreMews,26-34StanneryStreet,LondonSE114AB
www.rowmaninternational.com
Rowman&LittlefieldInternational,Ltd.isanaffiliateofRowman&Littlefield
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Copyright©2015byLeonieAnsemsdeVries
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany
electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems,
withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote
passagesinareview.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN:HB978-1-78348-100-2
ISBN:PB978-1-78348-101-9
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Vries,LeonieAnsemsde.
Re-imaginingapoliticsoflife:fromgovernanceofordertopoliticsofmovement/LeonieAnsems
deVries.
pagescm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN978-1-78348-100-2(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN978-1-78348-101-9(pbk.:alk.paper)—
ISBN978-1-78348-102-6(ebook)
1.Politicalscience—Philosophy.2.State,The.I.Title.
JA71.V752015
320.01—dc23
2014029840
TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Contents
Prologue vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction:PoliticsofLife xi
1 Sovereignty,War,Nature 1
2 Mechanics,Movement,Organisation 21
3 Biology,Security,Life 47
4 Circulation,Naturalisation,(De)Politicisation 63
5 Complexity,Relationality,Involution 81
6 Politics,Life,Movement 111
Bibliography 131
Index 141
v

Prologue
We start somewhere in the middle, in the midst of things, in a play of
movements and relations. The beginning, our starting point, is an ab-
stractionfromacomplexmilieuofmobileandrelationalforces.Amilieu
of connectivities, continuously changing, continuously becoming differ-
ent as elements and forces connect, detach, split and mix; a milieu of
settlement,inwhichlinesaredrawntodemarcateandcategorisespaces,
entities and identities. Movements and categories that continue to be-
comeundoneandreasserted—similarlyordifferently.Weemergesome-
where in the middle. As Deleuze (1988:123) puts it: ‘One never com-
mences;oneneverhasatabularasa;oneslipsin,entersinthemiddle[au
milieu].’
Couldwereimagineapoliticsoflifealongtheselines?
vii