Necropolitics
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.99/mo for the first 3 months
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Necropolitics
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sean Crisden
About this listen
In Necropolitics, Achille Mbembe, a leader in the new wave of francophone critical theory, theorizes the genealogy of the contemporary world, a world plagued by ever-increasing inequality, militarization, enmity, and terror as well as by a resurgence of racist, fascist, and nationalist forces determined to exclude and kill. He outlines how democracy has begun to embrace its dark side - what he calls its "nocturnal body" - which is based on the desires, fears, affects, relations, and violence that drove colonialism. This shift has hollowed out democracy, thereby eroding the very values, rights, and freedoms liberal democracy routinely celebrates. As a result, war has become the sacrament of our times in a conception of sovereignty that operates by annihilating all those considered enemies of the state.
Despite his dire diagnosis, Mbembe draws on post-Foucauldian debates on biopolitics, war, and race as well as Fanon's notion of care as a shared vulnerability to explore how new conceptions of the human that transcend humanism might come to pass. These new conceptions would allow us to encounter the Other not as a thing to exclude but as a person with whom to build a more just world.
©2019 Duke University Press; Original French publication, Politiques de l'inimitie 2016, Editions La Decouverte. (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Necropolitics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- JCM
- 06-03-25
Thought-provoking for the second age of Trump
A timely read with Trump back in the White House causing global chaos, and with Israel again preventing aid to Gaza after month upon month of destruction and slaughter.
Inspired as this is (in part) by Foucault, this is often heavy going and hard to follow, rammed full of academic jargon and concepts that may not immediately be familiar to anyone who's not been following this part of the discourse that closely. And - again, as so often with post-Foucault thinking - other aspects seem almost flippant in their assertiveness.
But there are some fascinating, deeply thought provoking ideas in here. From the idea of Nanoracism to the reframing of the concept of the border to include invisible internal restrictions, scapegoating, the proliferation of incarceration and camps, and "state capture" by hyper-rich businessmen (anticipating Musk by a few years), and the resulting "bifurcation of capitalism and democracy", so much of this resonated - of the bits I followed, at least.
The narrator, however, was flat in delivery. I struggled to pay attention to his voice. And frequently regretted not having a physical copy to work out how the flow of the sentence was intended to work.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!