The Primacy of Resistance: Power, Opposition and Becoming

Description

Whilst traditional accounts often conceptualise it as a reaction to power, this volume (prioritising remarks by Michel Foucault) invites us to think of resistance as primary. The author proposes a strategic analysis that highlights how our efforts need to be redirected towards a horizon of creation and change. Checchi first establishes a genealogy of two main trajectories of the history of our present: the liberal subject of rights and the neoliberal ideas of human capital and bio-financialisation. The former emerges as a reactive closure of Etienne de la Boéties discourse on human nature and natural companionship. The other forecloses the creative potential of Autonomist Marxist conceptions of labour, first elaborated by Mario Tronti. The focus of this text then shifts towards contemporary openings. Initially, Checchi proposes an inverted reading of Jacques Rancières concept of politics as interruption that resonates with Antonio Negris emphasis on Baruch Spinozas potential qua resistance. Finally, the author stages a virtual encounter between Gilles Deleuzes ontology of matter and Foucaults account of the primacy of resistance with which the text begins. Through this series of explorations, The Concept of Resistance: On Primacy and Power traces a conceptual trajectory with and beyond Foucault by affirming the affinity between resistance and creation. Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Resistance against the against 1 ‘Resistance comes first’: Metamorphoses, change, creation 2 Human nature and resistance. From La Boétie’s companionship to the liberal closure 3 The primacy of labour: Processes of expansions and scenarios of extinction 4 Power as interruption and the affirmation of potentia: Politics and resistance between Rancière and Negri 5 Re-existence: The materialist ontology of resistanceand becoming A conclusive opening: At last resistance comes first Notes References Index