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The Great Refusal
Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements

Andrew Lamas (Edited by), Todd Wolfson (Edited by), Peter N. Funke (Edited by), Angela Y. Davis (Foreword by)

9781439913048

Paperback / softback, published 23 January 2017

410 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.626 kg

“This is certainly the time for a Marcuse revival!”-Fredric Jameson, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen Professor of Comparative Literature, Duke University
 
One of the great 20th century critical theorists of domination and liberation, Herbert Marcuse has an enormous amount to say to our time. The Great Refusal makes this abundantly clear. The contributors draw Marcuse’s imaginative reworking of Hegel, Marx, Freud, and Weber into illuminating conversations with a diverse range of contemporary theorists and political movements. . .from those of the Zapatistas and Chinese factory workers to the Arab Spring and Occupy. This book is a treasure trove for scholars and activists alike.”-Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley
 

Herbert Marcuse examined the subjective and material conditions of radical social change and developed the "Great Refusal," a radical concept of "the protest against that which is." The editors and contributors to the exciting new volume The Great Refusal provide an analysis of contemporary social movements around the world with particular reference to Marcuse's revolutionary concept. The book also engages-and puts Marcuse in critical dialogue with-major theorists including Slavoj Žižek and Michel Foucault, among others.

The chapters in this book analyze different elements and locations of the contemporary wave of struggle, drawing on the work and vision of Marcuse in order to reveal, with a historical perspective, the present moment of resistance. Essays seek to understand recent uprisings-such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy movement-in the context of Marcuse's powerful conceptual apparatus.

The Great Refusal also charts contemporary social movements against global warming, mass incarceration, police brutality, white supremacy, militarization, technological development, and more, to provide insights that advance our understanding of resistance today.

Contributors include: Kevin B. Anderson, Stanley Aronowitz, Joan Braune, Jenny Chan, Angela Y. Davis, Arnold L. Farr, Andrew Feenberg, Michael Forman, Christian Fuchs, Stefan Gandler, Christian Garland, Toorjo Ghose, Imaculada Kangussu, George Katsiaficas, Douglas Kellner, Sarah Lynn Kleeb, Filip Kovacevic, Lauren Langman, Heather Love, Peter Marcuse, Martin J. Beck MatuŠtÍk, Russell Rockwell, AK Thompson, Marcelo Vieta, and the editors.

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