Slavoj Zizek is perhaps the most important, original and enigmatic philosophers writing today. Many readers both inside and outside of the academy have been intrigued by both the man and his writing yet, given the density of his prose and the radical views he often espouses, they have struggled to get a handle on his basic positions. He draws upon and makes continual reference to the challenging concepts of Kant, Hegel, Marx, Lacan, and Badiou. His prose is dense and frenetic and his dialectical twists and turns seem to make it impossible to attribute to him any specific position: he celebrates St. Paul and orthodox Christians even as he engages in a spirited defense of Lenin.
"Zizek's Politics "will synthesize Zizek's myriad political writings into a systematic theory and put his theory into dialogue with key concepts and positions in contemporary political thought. It will provide readers with a much needed critical introduction to the political thought of one of the world's most widely known and eccentric thinkers.

Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren advances Marcuse scholarship by presenting four hitherto untranslated and unpublished manuscripts by Herbert Marcuse from the Frankfurt University Archive on themes of economic value theory, socialism, and humanism. Contributors to this edited collection, notably Peter Marcuse, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Zvi Tauber, Arnold L. Farr and editor, Charles Reitz, are deeply engaged with the foundational theories of Marcuse and Marx with regard to a future of freedom, equality, and justice. Douglas Dowd furnishes the critical historical context with regard to U.S. foreign and domestic policy, particularly its features of economic imperialism and militarism. Reitz draws these elements together to show that the writings by Herbert Marcuse and these formidable authors can ably assist a global movement toward intercultural commonwealth. The collection extends the critical theories of Marcuse and Marx to an analysis of the intensifying inequalities symptomatic of our current economic distress. It presents a collection of essays by radical scholars working in the public interest to develop a critical analysis of recent global economic dislocations. Reitz presents a new foundation for emancipatory practice-a labor theory of ethics and commonwealth, and the collection breaks new ground by constructing a critical theory of wealth and work. A central focus is building a new critical vision for labor, including academic labor. Lessons are drawn to inform transformative political action, as well as the practice of a critical, multicultural pedagogy, supporting a new manifesto for radical educators contributed by Peter McLaren. The collection is intended especially to appeal to contemporary interests of college students and teachers in several interrelated social science disciplines: sociology, social problems, economics, ethics, business ethics, labor education, history, political philosophy, multicultural education, and critical pedagogy.

Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren advances Marcuse scholarship by presenting four hitherto untranslated and unpublished manuscripts by Herbert Marcuse from the Frankfurt University Archive on themes of economic value theory, socialism, and humanism. Contributors to this edited collection, notably Peter Marcuse, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Zvi Tauber, Arnold L. Farr and editor, Charles Reitz, are deeply engaged with the foundational theories of Marcuse and Marx with regard to a future of freedom, equality, and justice. Douglas Dowd furnishes the critical historical context with regard to U.S. foreign and domestic policy, particularly its features of economic imperialism and militarism. Reitz draws these elements together to show that the writings by Herbert Marcuse and these formidable authors can ably assist a global movement toward intercultural commonwealth. The collection extends the critical theories of Marcuse and Marx to an analysis of the intensifying inequalities symptomatic of our current economic distress. It presents a collection of essays by radical scholars working in the public interest to develop a critical analysis of recent global economic dislocations. Reitz presents a new foundation for emancipatory practice a labor theory of ethics and commonwealth, and the collection breaks new ground by constructing a critical theory of wealth and work. A central focus is building a new critical vision for labor, including academic labor. Lessons are drawn to inform transformative political action, as well as the practice of a critical, multicultural pedagogy, supporting a new manifesto for radical educators contributed by Peter McLaren. The collection is intended especially to appeal to contemporary interests of college students and teachers in several interrelated social science disciplines: sociology, social problems, economics, ethics, business ethics, labor education, history, political philosophy, multicultural education, and critical pedagogy.

"Reformatting Politics" examines the ways in which new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used by civil society organizations (CSOs) to achieve their aims through activities and networks that cross national borders. These new ICTs--the internet, mobile phones, satellite radio and television--have allowed these civil society organizations to form extensive networks linking the local and the global in new ways and to flourish internationally in ways that were not possible without them.
The book consists of four sections containing essays by some of the top scholars and activists working at the intersections of networked societies, civil society organizations, and information technology. The book also includes a section that takes a critical look at the UN World Summit of Information Society and the role that global governance has played and will play in the use and dissemination of these new technologies. Finally, the book aims to influence this important and emerging field of inquiry by posing a set of questions and directions for future research. In sum, "Reformatting Politic"s is a fresh look at the way critical network practice through the use of information technology is reformatting the terms and terrains of global politics.

A critical introduction to the political thought of one of the most important, original and enigmatic philosophers writing today. Zizek's Politics provides an original interpretation and defence of the Slovenian philosopher's radical critique of liberalism, democracy, and global capital.

Living in the post-modern age, there is a growing sentiment of disenchantment in relation to the most facile aspects of dogmatic feminism. Nevertheless, the question of sexual difference still remains. Sex, Breath and Force asks how we should approach such a questioning today, given the fall of the great narratives and the plethora of theoretical discourses in circulation. What are the conditions of possibility for thinking of sexual difference as a foundational problem in the age of technology? And, how do the disciplines of social science, literary studies, philosophy, and film studies answer this challenge? This collection of essays provides a reassessment of the question of sexual difference, taking into account important shifts in feminist thought, post-humanist theories, and queer studies. The contributors offer new and refreshing insights into the complex question of sexual difference from a post-feminist perspective, and how it is reformulated in various related areas of study, such as ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, biology, technology, and mass media.

Living in the post-modern age, there is a growing sentiment of disenchantment in relation to the most facile aspects of dogmatic feminism. Nevertheless, the question of sexual difference still remains. Sex, Breath and Force asks how we should approach such a questioning today, given the fall of the great narratives and the plethora of theoretical discourses in circulation. What are the conditions of possibility for thinking of sexual difference as a foundational problem in the age of technology? And, how do the disciplines of social science, literary studies, philosophy, and film studies answer this challenge? This collection of essays provides a reassessment of the question of sexual difference, taking into account important shifts in feminist thought, post-humanist theories, and queer studies. The contributors offer new and refreshing insights into the complex question of sexual difference from a post-feminist perspective, and how it is reformulated in various related areas of study, such as ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, biology, technology, and mass media.

Black Communist women throughout the early to mid-twentieth century fought for and led mass campaigns in the service of building collective power in the fight for liberation. Through concrete materialist analysis of the conditions of Black workers, these women argued that racial and economic equality can only be achieved by overthrowing capitalism. The first collection of its kind, Organize, Fight, Win brings together three decades of Black Communist women's political writings. In doing so, it highlights the link between Communism and Black liberation. Likewise, it makes clear how Black women fundamentally shaped, and were shaped by, Communist praxis in the twentieth century. Organize, Fight, Win includes writings from card-carrying Communists like Dorothy Burnham, Williana Burroughs, Grace P. Campbell, Alice Childress, Marvel Cooke, Esther Cooper Jackson, Thelma Dale Perkins, Vicki Garvin, Yvonne Gregory, Claudia Jones, Maude White Katz, and Louise Thompson Patterson, and writings by those who organized alongside the Communist Party, like Ella Baker, Charlotta Bass, Thyra Edwards, Lorraine Hansberry, and Dorothy Hunton.

Contents:
Introduction: Postmodern Republicanism Paul A. Passavant Immanence 1. Can Immanence Explain Social Struggles? Ernesto Laclau Transcendence 2. The Immanence of Empire Peter Fitzpatrick Market 3. On Divine Markets and the Problem of Justice Bill Maurer Law 4. Legal Imperialism: Empire's Invisible Hand? Ruth Buchanan and Sundhya Pahuja Representation 5. From Empire's Law to the Multitude's Rights: Law, Representation, Revolution Paul A. Passavant Sovereignty 6. Representing the International: Sovereignty after Modernity? Mark Laffey and Jutta Weldes Global 7. Africa's Ambiguous Relation to Empire and Empire Kevin C. Dunn Intermezzo: The Theory & Event Interview Sovereignty, Multitudes, Absolute Democracy A Discussion between Michael Hardt and Thomas Dumm Space 8. The Repositioning of Citizenship: Emergent Subjects and Spaces for Politics Saskia Sassen Place 9. The Irrepressible Lightness of Joy and of Being Green: Empire and Environmentalism William Chaloupka Migration 10. Smooth Politics Malcolm Bull Generation 11. Taking the Millennialist Pulse of Empire's Multitude: A Genealogical Feminist Analysis Lee Quinby Capitalism 12. The Ideology of Empire and Its Traps Slavoj Zizek Communication 13. The Networked Empire: Communicative Capitalism and the Hope for Politics Jodi Dean Revolution 14. The Myth of the Multitude Kam Shapiro Event
15. Representation and the Event Paul A. Passavant and Jodi Dean Contributors

Since its publication last year, Empire has come to dominate the academic world, stimulating debate and discussion throughout the humanities, social sciences, and into the mainstream media. Empire's New Clothes addresses Empire in all its complexity, that is as a work of legal and political theory that diagnoses our era and urges liberatory action. More precisely, it will set the outlines of the debate as it is emerging around the claims of Empire.

Crowds and Party channels the energies of the riotous crowds who took to the streets in the past five years into an argument for the political party. Rejecting the emphasis on individuals and multitudes, Jodi Dean argues that we need to rethink the collective subject of politics. When crowds appear in spaces unauthorized by capital and the state-such as in the Occupy movement in New York, London and across the world-they create a gap of possibility. But too many on the Left remain stuck in this beautiful moment of promise-they argue for more of the same, further fragmenting issues and identities, rehearsing the last thirty years of left-wing defeat. In Crowds and Party, Dean argues that previous discussions of the party have missed its affective dimensions, the way it operates as a knot of unconscious processes and binds people together. Dean shows how we can see the party as an organization that can reinvigorate political practice.

"Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies" is an impassioned call for the realization of a progressive left politics in the United States. Through an assessment of the ideologies underlying contemporary political culture, Jodi Dean takes the left to task for its capitulations to conservatives and its failure to take responsibility for the extensive neoliberalization implemented during the Clinton presidency. She argues that the left's ability to develop and defend a collective vision of equality and solidarity has been undermined by the ascendance of "communicative capitalism," a constellation of consumerism, the privileging of the self over group interests, and the embrace of the language of victimization. As Dean explains, communicative capitalism is enabled and exacerbated by the Web and other networked communications media, which reduce political energies to the registration of opinion and the transmission of feelings. The result is a psychotic politics where certainty displaces credibility and the circulation of intense feeling trumps the exchange of reason.

Dean's critique ranges from her argument that the term "democracy" has become a meaningless cipher invoked by the left and right alike to an analysis of the fantasy of free trade underlying neoliberalism, and from an examination of new theories of sovereignty advanced by politicians and left academics to a look at the changing meanings of "evil" in the speeches of U.S. presidents since the mid-twentieth century. She emphasizes the futility of a politics enacted by individuals determined not to offend anyone, and she examines questions of truth, knowledge, and power in relation to 9/11 conspiracy theories. Dean insists that any reestablishment of a vital and purposeful left politics will require shedding the mantle of victimization, confronting the marriage of neoliberalism and democracy, and mobilizing different terms to represent political strategies and goals.

Solidarity of Strangers is a crucial intervention in feminist, multicultural, and legal debates that will ignite a rethinking of the meaning of difference, community, and participatory democracy. Arguing for a solidarity rooted in a respect for difference, Dean offers a broad vision of the shape of postmodern democracies that moves beyond the limitations and dangers of identity politics. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.

In this new title in Verso's Pocket Communism series, Jodi Dean argues for the continued force of communism today. It should be our Pole star, the focus of our journey. With communism as our horizon, the field of possibilities for revolutionary theory and practice starts to change shape, and barriers to action fall away. Our combined strength replaces our separate weaknesses, our collective desire replaces individual drive, and mobilized wills replace passive indecision. When the illusion that capitalism is the only reality dissolves, anything is possible. She shows that the global anti-capitalist movement associated with Occupy Wall Street gets its bearings from the communist horizon as it expresses the intensity of collective desires to organize against the corporate and financial elite. Jodi Dean presents nothing less than a manifesto for a new politics and a new collectivity.

In recent decades, media outlets in the United States most notably the Internet have claimed to serve the public's ever-greater thirst for information. Scandals are revealed, details are laid bare because "the public needs to know." In Publicity's Secret, Jodi Dean claims that the public's demands for information both coincide with the interests of the media industry and reinforce the cynicism promoted by contemporary technoculture. Democracy has become a spectacle, and Dean asserts that theories of the "public sphere" endanger democratic politics in the information age.Dean's argument is built around analyses of Bill Gates, Theodore Kaczynski, popular journalism, the Internet and technology, as well as the conspiracy theory subculture that has marked American history from the Declaration Independence to the political celebrity of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The author claims that the media's insistence on the public's right to know leads to the indiscriminate investigation and dissemination of secrets. Consequently, in her view, the theoretical ideal of the public sphere, in which all processes are transparent, reduces real-world politics to the drama of the secret and its discovery."

In a provocative analysis of public culture and popular concerns, Jodi Dean examines how serious UFO-logists and their pop-culture counterparts tap into fears, phobias, and conspiracy theories with a deep past and a vivid present in American society. Aliens, the author shows, provide cultural icons through which to access the new conditions of democratic politics at the millennium. Because of the technological complexity of our age, political choices and decisions have become virtually meaningless, practically impossible. How do we judge what is real, believable, trustworthy, or authoritative? When the truth is out there, but we can trust no one, Dean argues, paranoia is indeed the most sensible response. Aliens have invaded the United States. No longer confined to science fiction and tabloids, aliens appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, at candy counters (in chocolate-covered flying saucers and Martian melon-flavored lollipops), and on Internet web sites. Aliens are at the center of a faculty battle at Harvard. They have been used to market AT&T cellular phones, Milky Way candy bars, Kodak film, Diet Coke, Stove-Top Stuffing, skateboard accessories, and abduction insurance. A Gallup poll reports that 27 percent of Americans believe space aliens have visited Earth. A Time/CNN poll finds 80 percent of its respondents believe the U.S. government is covering up knowledge of the existence of aliens. What does the widespread American belief in extraterrestrials say about the public sphere? How common are our assumptions about what is real? Is there any such thing as "common" sense? Aliens, the author shows, provide cultural icons through which to access the new conditions of democratic politics at the millennium. Because of the technological complexity of our age, political choices and decisions have become virtually meaningless, practically impossible. How do we judge what is real, believable, trustworthy, or authoritative? When the truth is out there, but we can trust no one, Dean argues, paranoia is indeed the most sensible response.

"Blog Theory" offers a critical theory of contemporary media. Furthering her account of communicative capitalism, Jodi Dean explores the ways new media practices like blogging and texting capture their users in intensive networks of enjoyment, production, and surveillance. Her wide-ranging and theoretically rich analysis extends from her personal experiences as a blogger, through media histories, to newly emerging social network platforms and applications.Set against the background of the economic crisis wrought by neoliberalism, the book engages with recent work in contemporary media theory as well as with thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, Jacques Lacan, and Slavoj ?i?ek. Through these engagements, Dean defends the provocative thesis that reflexivity in complex networks is best understood via the psychoanalytic notion of the drives. She contends, moreover, that reading networks in terms of the drives enables us to grasp their real, human dimension, that is, the feelings and affects that embed us in the system.In remarkably clear and lucid prose, Dean links seemingly trivial and transitory updates from the new mass culture of the internet to more fundamental changes in subjectivity and politics. Everyday communicative exchangesnfrom blog posts to text messagesnhave widespread effects, effects that not only undermine capacities for democracy but also entrap us in circuits of domination.

This ambitious collection of work at the intersection of cultural studies and contemporary political theory brings together leading thinkers from both traditions. Challenging the terms that have shaped the last 20 years of culture wars, the essays in Cultural Studies and Political Theory reject the accusations of the right that everything is political and of the left that politics is everything. They respond with an alternative, with an exploration of processes of politicization and culturalization that asks, "what does it mean for something to be political?"In affirming that there are different answers to this question, the contributors to Cultural Studies and Political Theory expand definitions of politics in light of transformations in globally networked, consumer-driven, mediated technoculture. Comprehending the production of the political is crucial at a time when the political and the cultural can no longer be decoupled and when we cannot know in advance who "we" are. By gathering the work of theorists who are redefining approaches to politics and culture, Jodi Dean establishes a set of directives for theoretical work at a new crossroads.