A political theory of contemporary resistance
This thesis provides a systematic critique of the political theory of ‘resistance’, a concept enjoying growing popularity, and questions the extent to which it can contribute to an understanding of emancipation. It brings together disparate literatures in anthropology and philosophy to determine the extent to which resistance serves as an obstacle to emancipation. This is done theoretically and philosophically yet paying particular attention to an overarching empirically-drawn theme: the status of how peripheral, exploited subjects relate to their subordination. Two particular examples of such peripheral subjects help develop the overall argument. Firstly, peripheral subjects within metropolitan cores: the marginalised urban and suburban populations in Paris and London who are gradually excluded from their cities, and how they relate to their domination. Secondly, peripheral subjects at the edge of the core: the backlands of Europe, particularly the indigenous Sami people populating parts of Northern Scandinavia, and how they relate to their domination. These two examples highlight the spatial, temporal, and racialised elements of subordination that contribute to the exploitation experienced by peripheral subjects. By drawing on work in critical urban geography and political sociology, the thesis contends that understanding the interaction between space, time, race, and capitalist development is essential to developing a critique of resistance. Furthermore, this interaction is at best underappreciated and at worst wholly absent from previous political theory on this matter.