Archive for December 2018

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[ecrea] New book: Miscommunicating Social Change: Lessons from Russia and Ukraine

Tue Dec 04 14:34:51 GMT 2018



New book “Miscommunicating Social Change: Lessons from Russia and Ukraine” is out with Lexington Books.

The main argument of the book is that the “progressive” imaginary of post-Communist social movements, which envisages progress in the unidirectional terms of catching up with the “more advanced” Western condition, is inherently anti-democratic and deeply antagonistic. Drawing on the theories of Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Nico Carpentier, this book shows how “progressive” articulations by the social activists in Russia and Ukraine ended up undermining the basis of the democratic public sphere through the closure of democratic space.

“An impressive feat of political and intellectual imagination, although rooted in detailed empirical research. A major landmark in the study of post-communist Russia and Ukraine.”  — Richard Sakwa, University of Kent.

“One of the most important and original books on the mediation of social change and ‘development.’ Miscommunicating Social Change tears apart the fabric of neocolonial platitude and calls intellectuals to account for their failure to understand that an effective response to social injustice first requires the subversion of its corresponding epistemological injustice.” —Joseph Oliver Boyd-Barrett, California State University Channel Islands.

“Miscommunicating Social Change is applied discourse theory at its best, driven by theory but with a keen eye for sociopolitical complexity and messiness. This book is a chilling and sobering analysis of the derailment of democratic protest and activism that does away with the romanticism of revolution. It is a grim reminder that social change projects built on essentialist and antagonist logics carry the seeds of destruction for both themselves and others. Most importantly, this book convincingly demonstrates how important the discursive is for the study of conflict and democracy, reminding us first that we think the enemy to death and, only then, move in for the kill.” —Nico Carpentier, Uppsala University.


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