New Princedoms - Critical Remarks on Claimed Alternatives by New Life Worlds

Abstract

This book, edited by Herrmann and with contributions from Earles and Kratzwald, revisits, with fresh insight, key sociological, philosophical, political and cultural theoretical frameworks of relevance to contemporary globalised world. The book is thought‐provoking in its central thesis which posits that there is a tendency for the ‘re‐feudalisation’ of production and reproduction and where economics is enmeshed with all elements of social life.

Full text



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          
      




    

          
        

         



    
           
         

 


 
 
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
 
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 
 
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   
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  
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  
   
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  
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  
 
   
 
  
 
 
   
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  
  
   
   
 
  

  
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  
 
  
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  
 
 
 
  
  
  

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
  –      



           

  
       
       
        
          the ‘re
feudalisation’ of production and reproduction and where economics is
           

 

 
        
         
          
         
       
states, what is the ‘common good’ and the relevance of collective rights.
           
     



         
         
        
     
          
      

          
       


 –


 


     
hegemony gains dominance to some extent as somewhat ‘incontestable
position’ by which the contestation of the system itself easily shifts
        

         

        –   –
based on producing the ‘consumptive needs’ that it aims to serve.
 

    
         
           
           
      – 

        



   
         
        
            
 –        
 
          
          
           
       
             
 

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          
         




        
         
          
       
          
    
precarity of the ‘social’ and degradation of living conditions, weake
         
           


         
responsibility and hence the creation of ‘the consumersubject’ who will
        
   onsumer. The ‘responsible consumer’ emerges as the
           
       

    
           

           
‘empowerment’. 
       
         
         
        
     –   
          

             
         
        
      

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
          
      
        





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 

     –
           

in some way dispersed. This intention had been also the editor’s rea
        –   
   –          


 

            
 


        –    
         



     –      
     




 –
 
          
         
          


       –
    –



           – 
mentioned ‘the readiness of engaging in a debate’. And in this respect I
           
          
 

           
           


        
         

–

           
 ‘’ – 
 

 – 


          
         
    
          


           





   
   
         
         
         
         



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
 –


  –   

  –
 f an argument suggesting some tendency of ‘re
feudalisation’ being characteristic of the current historical stage.
          
 



         



           
 

 




 –

the status of citizenship and the citizen’s identity; or when it comes to
rights, reference is frequently made to citizen’s rights and also to the
 
          
            
          
 


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          
  

              

           
 –




         
            
 –
    –      
time perspective, a view that links into Fernand Braudel’s understanding
 
[t]he stage on which humanity’s endless dramas are played out partly
         


   
         
           
‘planes’ –    
than the English ‘plane’ – 

One … is that of traditional history, habitual narrative, hurrying from
one event to the next …
A second plane … is that of episodes, each taken as a whole …
A third plane … transcends these events: it considers only phenomena
            
 covers vast reaches of time …


In this final perspective … 
        
 –


           
      –      

         
            
              

 
        
leash or at least move the tree. … . … major political transformations
            

         
         
          



 
          
 –


   

           
         –
     –   
          
         
 
          
  


is and is not ‘new’ the tree important turning points of our modern
system …

 
 
the revolution of 1968, undermining the ‘centrist liberal geoculture’. In
the later course of the argument Wallerstein emphasises the ‘divorce’
         –
           

             
 
          

 –
of ‘science as investigation of nature’ – 
–  –  – –
          
    
‘wellbeing’ as matter of enhancing individual (control over) resources.
           

     –    
           

         
 – Referring to Braudel’s remarks, political history is then



 


         
            

 


      
         
 
   
            

        

         


        
         



           –
‘undeveloped’ –         

      
             





  
  
             – 
 –          

       
  
         
       



       –     
respect when it comes to the argument that ‘pure economic
requirements’, understood as p    


First, Hardin’s argument has not only a particularly moralist undertone

           

 

           
          
     

[c]ommons are basically collective rights, or more precisely ‘property
rights held in common by a social group’.

  
           

          
           
        

 
It is clear that Hardin’s argument is doddery, looking for the justification
  

        
           
         
        
          
         




    
        
  
          
  
 
          
       
           
    
      
          
         


         
  


 
          
           
          
         
      –   
 –
 




            
             

             
fashion: On the one hand they suggest dealing with ‘nonstatement’ – 
        
        


         
         
 –



           
  
building itself tends to argue from today’s perspective and is thus
          
       
  –

         
             

Even if they had been indeed by and large ‘political entities’, it has to be
         
         
         
today’s general understanding in three respects:
•          
 
•      


• – –  
          

           
       
   

      
fferent ‘extreme points’. See 



   –  
 – had been a matter of directly ‘managing the
entire life’. 

          
 
        


   

• –
            

•         

 
        


           
         


relations (‘objective factors’) and the way in which people socially
relate to each other and the environment (‘subjective factors’). This

[t]he production of life, both of one’s own in labour and of fresh life in

           
        
     
          

  operation is itself a ‘productive force.’ Further, that the
   
of society, hence, that the ‘history of humanity’ must always be 




           
  
as ‘activating them’ and the n    

          
         

































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












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
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























   



 – 
   –    
         
       
 

this bigger question: I’m simply insisting on the fact that we are
          
            
 – I don’t see where the state ends and the market starts, or where


      Dunn’s analysis of

        
          
       
        
         
    
       


 respect beyond Immanuel Wallerstein’s

    
 –
 – 

social reality … not [as] the multiple national states of which we are
   
         –
       
     –       
           






          –
 –
 


  
        
       
          
          

         
        

   
       

        




           
          
convincingly shown, each ‘systemic cycle of accumulation’ involves a
  
          
         
         
          
        
      

     

        



            


quickly, but it’s not exact. Core    
       
and they both exist in all countries. … . A key element here is
  
      
           
            
production spread out to more countries, that’s because they have
         
 
‘developing.’

           

          

 
    
            

 –
 – 
    
  
–
          
       

             
           
         –

corporatism or the features of a ‘captive state’  the ‘competitive state’,
the ‘welfare state’ or the like
E.g. the ‘ancient’ state or the ‘church state’ (the ‘welfare state’ may possibly also



       –  
        
 
            
 
           

[s]tates have been the world’s largest and most powerful organizations
           
         
          

 
          


  
     
 –

           
           

speaks in favour insofar as it draws attention to more ‘functional’
  
       –  
    
          
      
make a ‘state’ necessary but also that allow to transcend the concept of

difference of the form of past ‘statehoods’; in prospective it i
     –  
        
         
      
      
     – 





            
 
           


         
 


  
  
           

         
         

          
           



[t]oday … we have to say that a state is a human community that
         
           


             
   
          


   

‘’ ‘’
          
            
      


       
‘’
           
        
 ‘’
         



          

 

       
 economic conditions for the ‘expanded reproduction’ of

           

in what Gramsci would later term ‘wars of position’ and ‘wars of
manoevre’.


         
            
 – 
   
other classes and (ii)performing as ‘total ideal capitalist’ and actually
  
       


         
            


There is of course much in Weber’s writing on the legitimate rul –




 
           
 – –
        
 –
 –
           


 –
         
 

 
    


          
          
          
    
‘societal eras’:





 
   
       
  –       
     –   
      – 
 –   
        

         



        
 –        
 
  
    
       
entities, reflecting the ‘functional definition’ a   
        
some extent as somewhat ‘incontestable position’ by which the
     
        
           
        
          
  –

         
 

              
          
 “Real

           
     based communities.” (Putnam,


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
  
rvey speaks of ‘the web of life’ and etches
            
‘outside of’ the circulation of capital, then we have to concede that
          
        
    

       
        
           
          
        
        


            

         
building ‘gated communities of all classes’ and ‘self 
professions’. In practice, we see this in various and hugely contradicting
         

         
    
       
 –

         
      called ‘developed world’ and
       
          

            
    
      
          


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         
           


          
          


         
       
 –    
             
       
     
           


 –        
    
    
 

–

    
         




       


 
     –     
     


          
         

   
       
   
          
         
      
 –       
       
          
           
           
           
            


           
  
 

  –        



the paradoxical nature of the global village concept … . this ‘global
paradox’ is usually described purely in economic terms … . But this
      
which is less amenable to the tenets of ‘progress theory’. As
  
         
            
       
  

 

 



 
 
       


          
developing as an ‘independent area’, claiming as such overall power over
          
independent political power as ‘mediating instance’ –   
dissolution of the ‘integrated socioeconomic functioning’ with the
         
        
         

 
           
          
         
 ‘’
 ‘’        
           
  ‘’ ‘’   

        
        



 

         
     

and mediating role of the ‘state’. Rather than dealing with an
‘independent state’ or with a state    
 – –   
ng to Carl Schmitt’s stance on the ‘total state’ 

Looking at Carl Schmitt’s approach, we are taught that


   
  – at least on Schmitt’s presentation[.] – 
         
        
 to a ‘Leviathan’
meant that it had actually come to symbolise a body that ‘disappears
from the world of representation.’ This is because the theatrical
        
   

‘To represent means to make visible and present an invisible entity through
an entity which is publicly present … This is not possible with any arbitrary
ing (Sein) is assumed.’
        
 ‘’
  

 

 –   
 

        
 
           
           
    
 
 – –
            
  


         
Conducting one’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences, 

           




 
   
           
         
  
          
   
             
   
  
       
            
             
   
           
        
            
         

            

           

 
In other words, stating on the one hand the individual as ‘independent
actor’, he then qualifies it by submitting him/her under this external
           
        

           

        
     –   – 
  
al thinking to imagined thinking. In today’s terms: from the real
‘abstracting economy’ that deals with exchange values rather than use
values to the ‘imagined abstracting economy’ of exchange that deals with
         
 –
   


 – 


     
        
        
         

           

 

parts of the world? Does it mean more than applying ‘modern
governance rules’ as means of the work of international insti
 –        –    

           
       

•
•
• –    –   
  (see for instance
Ahearne/PisaniFerry/Sapir/Véron   

  
         
         
        

       
        
         
  
         
          
          
      


          
         
          
         
          


           

          
with the ‘destatisation’ by which old borders change, frazzle and
            
       
   
     
          
    
         
  –   –
         


        

           
some kind of ‘global citizenry and citizenship’ and g 
           
  –        

   –

 To be sure, I do not suggest that the ‘state’ does not play a role anymore –
    
           – 

  
          
 



           
today’s reality in this light in order to develop at least a clear
    
   


  –     –      
           
          
        

  –
    –         
          




        
       
           
         

•
         
        
‘manufacturing’ towards distribution and exchange.
          

     
    
        
 
         

and begging and today’s increasing ‘management’ of begging and
   
         
      


      –  

•
        
   
 –     –    
 
        
 


   –   
 
         

 
         

•     –    
 

•      
    
         


       
      – in some respect ‘replacing’
       
        
         
          –
    –   
         


        
          




• – 
 –
         
played by ‘different forms of capital’, if taken in Bourdieu’s
 –
         

   
       

   

‘nonstatutory law’ and other means and expressions of private

•         
‘subjective reflections’. Religion and questions of faith, p
       



  

         
           
 
        
         
         
        

         
       
          
different light. Heide Gerstenberger’s remarks in connection with

           



  

    –
    –      
profitable utilisation of land property ‘abandonment’ emerged as
         
 –  

 – 
     
  
   
• 
       
 –
   –      

•           
 –
   
       – 
         
matter of ‘community citizenship’   
      
      
and Torres Strait Islanders as ‘state within a state’ are a 


•
         
       

own ‘network societies’ but furthermore with this specific

 
         
         
development of ‘global law’ of which the United Nations body is
         –  


     
       
         

           

    
          
      –    –
         
         
          
   
         
   

 

         
         
  ithin certain functional fields’; the lack of
       

            
   
 
   –     
    – are ‘functional social spaces’ as for
      –  
      –
    –    
          
       
reference and with a ‘selected membership’.   
           
rather strictly regulated new ‘communities’ 
        

on wider societal areas by getting involved into ‘stakeholder
processes’        


        
         

• –
 –
             

      
     (‘buergerliche Staatsgewalt’)

  
 –      

            
          
      
 

       
 –   
of the ‘modern subject’ –     
  

  –   –   
 
         
         
          
         
        
       
         
         
agentive capacity, that of being, in his formulation, a ‘respondent.’







       
        
          

  – 

         


             


          
   find many of today’s debates also in this respect
      
   
        

 –     –
 –

     
        
 –
         
        

         
 
       



       
   ew ‘Renaissance’. Then the formation of
       
         
 


          
          
economy, as it had been called alluding to Carl Schmitt’s ‘total
state’  – 
       –    
      
        
   
 –
   
      
       
          
       
  –       


         

        

It is the ‘ceremonial governance’ that finds today its seeming
     –
   – 

•   –     

the search for a ‘good order’ or ‘good society’. Howeve
       –      
          

their ‘overlapping dimensions of space and people’. 
           
       

 
as new dimension of defining ‘statehood’    
        
          
   



           
history and the call for smart societies and ‘(moral) virtue instead
of (monetarised) value’. The call for new Machiavellian princes is
   –      – 

 – –

 word arete is translated as ‘virtue’ and means the quality
which entitles any institution or individual to be called good. … It is


        –

      –   
 
 
          –

           
         

            
 
 



            
‘the state’ and its development is the border between politics 
 
      
          
         


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
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          
          
      
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          
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