Duke University Press Around the Day in Eighty Worlds: Politics of the Pluriverse (Thought in the Act)

In Around the Day in Eighty Worlds Martin Savransky calls for a radical politics of the pluriverse amid the ongoing devastation of the present. Responding to an epoch marked by the history of colonialism and ecological devastation, Savransky draws on the pragmatic pluralism of William James to develop what Savransky calls a “pluralistic realism”—an understanding of the world as simultaneously one and many, ongoing and unfinished, underway and yet to be made. Savransky explores the radical multifariousness of reality by weaving key aspects of James's thought together with divergent worlds and stories: of Magellan's circumnavigation, sorcery in Mozambique, God's felt presence among a group of evangelicals in California, visible spirits in Zambia, and ghosts in the wake of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Throughout, he experiments with these storied worlds to dramatize new ways of approaching the politics of radical difference and the possibility of transforming reality. By exploring and constructing relations between James's pluralism and the ontological turn in anthropology, Savransky offers a new conceptualization of the pluriverse that fosters modes of thinking and living otherwise. Review “Martin Savransky's generative and intense book powerfully relays the living, burning demand at the heart of William James's pragmatism—that we learn to feel and think with a reality in the making of which we participate, whether we will it or not. Experimenting with this risky but transformative demand, Savransky reactivates a William James, calling contemporary thinkers to hold out a trusting hand to the manifold, adventurous commitments of today's activism.” -- Isabelle Stengers, author of ― In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism “With superior scholarship and clarity, Martin Savransky joins recent efforts to displace realist epistemologies and offer alternative analytical practices of the real. This succinct book moves conversations about the so-called ontological turn (and ontological openings) to a thought-ground that philosophically inclined scholars in all disciplines will find attractive to play in.” -- Marisol de la Cadena, author of ― Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds "A succinct book, captivatingly structured, and thoughtfully written, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds is a generative contribution to the study and practice of pluriversal politics." -- David McKeown ― European Journal of Social Theory "Overall, this book offers scholars across disciplines a reconceptualized approach to analyzing social worlds. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- R. P. Lorenzo ― Choice About the Author Martin Savransky is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London; author of The Adventure of Relevance: An Ethics of Social Inquiry; and coeditor of Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures.