Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Re-Imagining a Politics of Life: From Governance of Order to Politics of Movement

Product Description The prominence and variety of contemporary global movements indicates that the idea of politics as governance is resisted by many political actors. However, the political canon continues to reinforce a narrow definition of politics according to liberal principles and practices. This book develops a new theory of political life that includes, and highlights, the interconnectedness of forces of order, disorder, governance, resistance, violence and difference. Using the concept of the milieu-a force of becoming, difference and transformation-this book stages an encounter between the modern political and international thought of Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant and the contemporary philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. The writings of Foucault and Deleuze will serve to explore and contextualize the milieu and will function to highlight the complex mobility and relationality of notions of politics, life, governance and resistance Review Entering "in the middle" of critical thinking about the politics of life as it has been articulated in the history of European political philosophy, Leonie Ansems De Vries brings the politics-life problematic up-to-date with attention to both contemporary political issues and the current critical philosophical work within which "life" is on the agenda. The book is timely, nuanced and politically acute. It deserves the attention of scholars and students of political theory everywhere. --Michael J. Shapiro, Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii About the Author Leonie Ansems de Vries is lecturer in international relations at King's College London. She has written journal articles of Theoria, Global Society and Cultural Politics.