Despite growing popular and policy interest in 'new' slavery, with contemporary abolitionists calling for action to free an estimated 40 million 'modern slaves', interdisciplinary and theoretical dialogue has been largely missing from scholarship on 'modern slavery'. This edited volume will provide a space to reinvigorate the theory and practice of representing slavery and related systems of domination, in particular our understandings of the binary between slavery and freedom in different historical and political contexts. The book takes a critical approach, interrogating the concept of modern slavery by exploring where it has come from, and its potential for obscuring and foreclosing new understandings. Including contributions from philosophers, political theorists, sociologists, anthropologists, and English literature scholars, it adds to the emerging critique of the concept of 'modern slavery' through its focus on the connections between the past of Atlantic World slavery, the present of contemporary groups whose freedoms are heavily restricted (prisoners, child labourers in the Global South, migrant domestic workers, and migrant wives), and the futures envisaged by activists struggling against different elements of the systems of domination that Atlantic World slavery relied upon and spawned. Revisiting Slavery & Antislavery will be of indispensable value to scholars, students, policy makers and activists in the fields of human rights, modern history, international politics, social policy, sociology and global inequality.

Despite growing popular and policy interest in 'new' slavery, with contemporary abolitionists calling for action to free an estimated 40 million 'modern slaves', interdisciplinary and theoretical dialogue has been largely missing from scholarship on 'modern slavery'. This edited volume will provide a space to reinvigorate the theory and practice of representing slavery and related systems of domination, in particular our understandings of the binary between slavery and freedom in different historical and political contexts. The book takes a critical approach, interrogating the concept of modern slavery by exploring where it has come from, and its potential for obscuring and foreclosing new understandings. Including contributions from philosophers, political theorists, sociologists, anthropologists, and English literature scholars, it adds to the emerging critique of the concept of 'modern slavery' through its focus on the connections between the past of Atlantic World slavery, the present of contemporary groups whose freedoms are heavily restricted (prisoners, child labourers in the Global South, migrant domestic workers, and migrant wives), and the futures envisaged by activists struggling against different elements of the systems of domination that Atlantic World slavery relied upon and spawned. Revisiting Slavery & Antislavery will be of indispensable value to scholars, students, policy makers and activists in the fields of human rights, modern history, international politics, social policy, sociology and global inequality.

Critically interrogates of the history and politics of slavery, from classical Greek philosophy to todayWhat makes a slave a slave? What does it mean to think about slavery as a political question? This book examines slavery and freedom as founding narratives of the liberal subject and of modernity. Laura Brace asks what happens when we try to bring slaves back into history, and into the history of political thought in particular. Looking at scholarship on both 'old' and 'new' slavery, the book assesses the work of Aristotle, Locke, Hegel, Kant, Wollstonecraft and Mill, and explores the contemporary concerns of human trafficking and the prison industrial complex to consider the limitations of 'new slavery' discourse.Key FeaturesAnalyses the dominant liberal discourse on slavery, from Aristotle to Nietzsche Examines the connections between 'old' and 'new' slavery Explores the role of concepts of power, violence, domination and subordination, issues of economic exploitation and the organization of labour and the influence of race and gender

What makes a slave a slave? What does it mean to think about slavery as a political question? This book examines slavery and freedom as founding narratives of the liberal subject and of modernity. Laura Brace asks what happens when we try to bring slaves back into history, and into the history of political thought in particular. Looking at scholarship on both 'old' and 'new' slavery, the book assesses the work of Aristotle, Locke, Hegel, Kant, Wollstonecraft and Mill, and explores the contemporary concerns of human trafficking and the prison industrial complex to consider the limitations of 'new slavery' discourse.

Sovereignty is undoubtedly one of the most disputed and controversial concepts in politics today. What does it mean to say that a state, a people or an individual is sovereign? In this book, twelve contributors, all specialists in their own area, tackle these questions in different ways. Underlying the range and diversity of their responses is a common problem: how does sovereignty relate to society and the state? The first part focuses upon developments in British politics, the European Union, Northern Ireland and South Africa in the late 20th century. The second part explores state sovereignty from an international perspective, while the third looks towards detaching sovereignty from the state. Feminist arguments about the self and the exploitation of prostituted women are interrogated along with a democratic analysis of popular organizations and a novel assessment of the question of sovereignty and animal rights.

This book offers a theory of property that takes into account current debates about gender, slavery, and colonialism. It introduces property as a contested concept and explores how that contestability is played out in political debates between thinkers, across ideologies, and in political practice. Analyzing the key debates, Brace illustrates how private property has been caught up with ideas of labor, freedom, and belonging and has informed the development of liberalism, socialism, and conservatism as well as the construction of class, gender, and race. While examining the works of Locke, Winstanley, Godwin, Bentham, Hegel, and Marx, this book focuses on the idea of property as a site of struggle and as a means of connecting individuals to civil society and the state. It offers valuable insights into the ways in which ideas about property influence political ideologies, thought, and practice.