TOWARDS THEORISING POSTMODERN ACTIVISM: A FOUCAULDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to alert to a specific danger confronted by the postmodern supposedly anti capitalist movements. Referring to the work of Michel Foucault I try to demonstrate that specific danger in terms of the double character of freedom. Freedom according to Foucault is not only a principle of diversity but also a tool of management. Ignoring the management aspect of freedom and merely considering it as a ‘way out’ leads to the incoporation of these movements within the same power constellations against which they are struggling. I make my case through first situating postmodern struggles within an overall schema derived from the work of Michel Foucault. The working of the double bind of freedom in capitalist societies is described through a brief look at how the subjectivisation regime works in capitalism. In this context it is suggested that postmodern movements supposedly are aimed at creating a new subjectivity - a subjectivity that can break out of the double bind of the capitalist subjectivisation regime. However these movements fail precisely on this account. They more than often turn into, what Foucault pejoratively called liberation movements.