Prefigurative Politics

Guilherme Fians
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引用次数: 38

Abstract

‘Prefigurative politics’ refers to how activists embody and enact, within their activism, the socialities and practices they foster for broader society. Inspired by anarchist principles, the core practices characterising prefiguration include participative democracy, horizontality, inclusiveness, and direct action. Gaining visibility with the social movements that blossomed after 1968, and again with the post-1999 movements opposing neoliberal globalisation, prefigurative politics involve deploying political practices that are in line with the activists’ envisaged goals. These, in turn, tend to encompass the construction of a democratic and horizontal society, which must be enacted through egalitarian relationships between activists who refrain from resorting to authoritarian, sexist, and exclusionary means to reach political goals. Yet, what are the origins of this concept? What kind of politics are referred to as prefigurative? Since the concept’s consolidation, anthropologists have been at the forefront of answering these questions, as both researchers and activists. They look at how prefigurative politics intersect with themes dear to the discipline, such as social organisation, globalisation, social change, community-building, and everyday ways of inhabiting the world. This entry explores how prefigurative politics as a concept and as a series of practices have become relevant among those who build horizontal political and social relations, oppose representative democracy, and embody alternative lifestyles. Exploring prefigurative politics leads scholars to question the seemingly straightforward divide between the New Left and ‘old lefts’. Additionally, asking whether right-wing movements can also engage in prefigurative politics helps us better understand the pervasive practices that transform non-institutionalised activism into laboratories from where people foster change and experiment with new socialities.
预示的政治
“先兆政治”指的是活动人士如何在他们的活动中体现和制定他们为更广泛的社会所培育的社会和实践。受无政府主义原则的启发,预言的核心实践包括参与式民主、横向性、包容性和直接行动。随着1968年之后蓬勃发展的社会运动,以及1999年后反对新自由主义全球化的运动,先见之明的政治涉及部署符合活动家设想目标的政治实践。这些,反过来,倾向于包含民主和水平社会的建设,这必须通过活动家之间的平等关系来实施,这些活动家避免诉诸专制,性别歧视和排他性手段来达到政治目标。然而,这个概念的起源是什么?什么样的政治被称为先兆?自从这一概念得到巩固以来,作为研究者和活动家,人类学家一直站在回答这些问题的前沿。他们研究了预言性政治如何与该学科所珍视的主题(如社会组织、全球化、社会变革、社区建设和日常生活方式)相交叉。这篇文章探讨了作为一个概念和一系列实践的预示政治是如何在那些建立横向政治和社会关系、反对代议制民主和体现另类生活方式的人中间变得相关的。对先兆政治的探索使学者们质疑新左派和“老左派”之间看似简单的区别。此外,询问右翼运动是否也可以参与预言性政治,有助于我们更好地理解将非制度化的行动主义转变为人们促进变革和实验新社会的实验室的普遍做法。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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