Paradoxes of Emancipation

Traces the formation of political subjectivity in times of crisis, by attending to the 2011 occupation of Syntagma Square in Athens: the heart of the Greek anti-austerity movement. Dimitris Soudias conceives of the Syntagma Square occupation as a lens through which we can critically engage with broader theoretical and political issues.

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In Paradoxes of Emancipation, Dimitris Soudias traces the formation of political subjectivity in times of crisis, by attending to the 2011 occupation of Syntagma Square in Athens: the heart of the Greek anti-austerity movement. Soudias conceives of the Syntagma Square occupation as a lens through which we can critically engage with broader theoretical and political issues about the crumbling promises of the capitalist imaginary, the epistemic "spirit" of neoliberal rationalities, the spatialized practices of navigating precarity and uncertainty, and the prospects for a radically better tomorrow.

By challenging both the romanticization of anti-austerity activism and the reduction of neoliberalism to mere free market thinking, Soudias reveals that the relationship between political subject formation and emancipation in neoliberalism is utterly paradoxical: in their effort to overcome neoliberal rationalities, individuals also partly stabilize them. Interweaving the stories and insights of activists with light-touch sociology, geography, and political theory, this book makes bold claims about the future of emancipation by envisioning an "alter-neoliberal critique." In so doing, Paradoxes of Emancipation presents an illuminating inquiry into how our experiences with capitalist crises lead to profound reevaluations of ourselves in ways that challenge our expectations of the future.