Chris Henry: Truth and the Politics of Resistance

In our post-truth political climate, it seems as though the concept of ontological truth(s) has been cast aside in favour of a sceptical politics that dabbles in ‘alternative facts’. Can truth be rescued from the abyss? And is the current trend towards poststructuralism responsible for creating the abyss in the first place? If so, does poststructuralism have the resources to overcome this problem? According to Chris Henry, the answer can be found in a new micropolitics that offers a space for resistance out of which new political possibilities can arise.

In this week’s episode of The Provocateur, I debate these issues with Chris, who is an associate lecturer at the University of Kent. We explore what might be wrong with a contemporary politics that is interested in authoritative truth claims about the world, before moving on to discuss the idea of a politics not grounded in the representation of truth claims and the implications for how we should act in the contemporary political landscape.

You can listen to part one of the podcast here: 

Part two is here: 

Further Reading:

On resistance:

Badiou, A. (2005) Metapolitics. London and New York: Verso.

Buchanan, I. (2008) ‘Power Theory and Praxis’, in I. Buchanan and N. Thoburn (eds.) Deleuze and Politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Deleuze, G. (2008 [1964]) Proust and Signs. London and New York: Continuum.

Diefenbach, K. et al. (eds.) (2013) Encountering Althusser: Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought. London: Bloomsbury.

Foucault, M. and G. Deleuze (1980) Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. M. Foucault and D. F. Bouchard. Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press.

Svirsky, M. (2010) “Defining Activism”, Deleuze Studies 4(supplement), pp. 163-182.

On metaphysics and ontology:

Althusser, L. (1976) Essays in Self-Criticism. London and Paris: NLB. esp. “Reply to John Lewis.”

Althusser, L. and F. Matheron (2003) ‘Three Notes on the Theory of Discourses’, in The Humanist Controversy and Other Writings (1966-67). London and New York: Verso.

Badiou, A. (2011) Being and Event. London: Continuum.

Brassier, R. (2005) ‘Badiou’s Materialist Epistemology of Mathematics’, Angelaki 10(2): 135-150.

Bryant, L. R., et al. (2011). The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism, re.press.

Critchley, S. (2008) Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of commitment, politics of resistance. London and Brooklyn: Verso.

Deleuze, G. (2011 [1994]). Difference and Repetition. London and New York, Continuum.

Hallward, P. (2003). Badiou: A Subject to Truth. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Henry, C. (2016). ‘On Truth and Instrumentalisation’, London Journal of Critical Thought (1), pp. 5-15.

Meillassoux, Q. (2008) After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. London and New York: Continuum.

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Jamie Pow: Democracy Without Politicians? Citizen-Centred Democratic Solutions in Northern Ireland

If you’ve been following the news in Northern Ireland lately you might have noticed the serious political crisis emerging there, which has led to the resignation of the Deputy First Minister and the de facto resignation of the First Minister. Ostensibly the cause is a row over renewable energy incentives, but it points to deeper problems in Stormont’s power-sharing arrangement that threaten to undermine the legitimacy of Northern Irish institutions in the long term.

Today on The Provocateur I talk to Jamie Pow, who is a PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast, about his arguably radical solution to Northern Ireland’s institutional difficulties: an assembly of randomly-shared citizens that would deliberate on contentious legislative matters. We discuss the experience of other places where citizens’ assemblies have been tried, the particular challenges faced by the Northern Irish context and future directions for his research.

You can listen to the podcast here: 

Further Reading:

Brennan, J. (2011) ‘The Right to a Competent Electorate’, The Philosophical Quarterly 61(245), pp. 700-724.

_____ (2012) The Ethics of Voting. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Fishkin, J. S. (2009) When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McCrudden, C. et al. (2016) ‘Why Northern Ireland’s Institutions Need Stability’, Government and Opposition 51(1), pp. 30-58.

McEvoy, J. and B. O’Leary (eds.) (2013) Power-Sharing in Deeply Divided Places. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Norris, P. (2011) Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

van Reybrouck, D. (2016) Against Elections: The Case for Democracy, trans. Liz Waters. London: Penguin Random House.