Social Sciences for an Other Politics

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Bath, UK. She is a critical sociologist and writes about radical subjectivity; labour, social, rural and indigenous movements; Argentine and Latin American politics, autonomy, Ernst Bloch, hope, and contemporary forms of utopia.

This book opens up a unique intellectual space where eleven female scholar-activists explore alternative forms of theorising social reality. These'Women on the Verge' demonstrate that a new radical subject- one that is plural, prefigurative, decolonial, ethical, ecological, communal and democratic- is in the making, but is unrecognisable with old analytical tools. Of central concern to the book is the resistance of some social scientists, many of them critical theorists, to learning about this radical subject and to interrogating the concepts, methodologies and epistemologies used to grasp it. Echoing the experiential critique of capitalist-colonial society that is taking place at the grassroots, the authors examine how to create hope, decolonise critique and denaturalise society. They also address the various dimensions of the social (re)production of life, including women in development, the commons, and nature. Finally, they discuss the dynamics of prefiguration by social movements, critiquing social movement theory in the process. This thought-provoking edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of gender studies, social, Marxist and Feminist theory, postcolonial studies and politics.

Provides a ground-breaking and provocative approach to social and political change

Foreword; J.K.Gibson-Graham.- Chapter 1. Introduction: The radical subject and its critical theory; Ana Cecilia Dinerstein.- Part I. Epistemological Openings.- Chapter 2. Learning Hope: An Epistemology of Possibility for Advanced Capitalist Society; Sarah Amsler.- Chapter 3. Decolonising critique: From Prophetic Negation to Prefigurative Affirmation; Sara Catherine Motta.- Chapter 4. Denaturalising 'society': Concrete utopia and the prefigurative critique of political economy; Ana Cecilia Dinerstein.- Part II. The (Re)Production of Life.- Chapter 5. Transgressing Gender and Development: Rethinking Economy Beyond 'Smart Economics'; Suzanne Bergeron.- Chapter 6. Producing the Common and Re-producing Life: Keys towards Rethinking 'the political'; Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, Lucia Linsalata and Mina Lorena Navarro Trujillo .- Chapter 7. Talking about nature: Ecolinguistics and the 'natureculture paradigm'; Francesca Zunino.- Part III. Social Movements and Prefigurative Politics.- Chapter 8.The Prefigurative is Political: On Politics beyond 'the State'; Emily Brissette.- Chapter 9. The Prefigurative Turn: The Time and Place of Social Movement Practice; Marianne Maeckelbergh.- Chapter 10. Rethinking Social Movements with Societies in Movement; Marina Sitrin.