In this issue of Mute we revisit the question of ‘the human’ in the age of biopolitics. What do philosophers, activists and ‘pro-revolutionaries’ have to say about homo sapiens in a world where monstrous claims on value demand populations be reduced to ‘bare (hardworking) life’? From repression of messy ‘species being’ in revolutionary milieus, to the managerial dream of putting supposed species traits like language and empathy to work, the stakes of determining humanness, or resisting that determination, are high.
2009-03, ISSN 1356-7748-211 & ISBN 978190649625
FURTHER DESCRIPTION
Burdened by the Absence of the Billions?
Howard Slater reviews Frére Dupont’s Species Being and Other Stories
He’s Not Beyond Good and Evil
Nina Power asks if there’s a point to Paolo Virno’s unhappy human
Monstrous Plans & Good Habitats
Mark Crinson on suggestions that anti-colonisation struggles were also about architecture
The Political Immunity of Discourse
Erik Empson on Roberto Esposito’s Bios
Wishful Thinkers of the Calamity Bazaar
John Barker says the time to attack the fantasy world of capitalist spin-doctors is now
The Who and Whom of Liberty Taking
Peter Linebaugh asks how it’s possible to discuss liberty in the absence of equality
Duck! You Regeneration Sucker
Neil Gray watches David Panos and Anja Kirschner’s Trail of the Spider and finds history repeating itself
The Sleep of Realism Produces Monsters
Andrew Fisher considers documentary maker Adam Curtis’ claims to ‘realism’ and political neutrality
Illustrations
Theo Michaels
ISSN 1356-7748-211
ISBN 978-1-906496-2-5
Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm
108 pages
