Vocations of Political Theory
Whether challenging the settlement between political theory and political science, whereby theorists stuck to the "old texts" and left the "real world" to their empirical colleagues, or interrogating the relationship between political theory and political action, these essays expand and elaborate the parameters of political discourse-making their timeliness, relevance, and reach powerfully apparent.
Contributors: Mark B. Brown, Wendy Brown, William E. Connolly, Thomas L. Dumm, J. Peter Euben, Russell Arben Fox, Samantha Frost, Shane Gunster, Jill Locke, David Paul Mandell, Lon Troyer, Sheldon S. Wolin, Linda M. B. Zerilli.
Political Science
Eminent and emerging thinkers seek to bridge the gap between political thought and political action.
Written by scholars with a rare sense of the historical and conceptual breadth of politics and theory, the essays in this volume explore possibilities for political theory in a world marked by disorienting political transformations. In doing so, they document and address the character and status of contemporary political theory, its changing place in the academy, and its role in public life. Whether challenging the settlement between political theory and political science, whereby theorists stuck to the "old texts" and left the "real world" to their empirical colleagues, or interrogating the relationship between political theory and political action, these essays expand and elaborate the parameters of political discourse-making their timeliness, relevance, and reach powerfully apparent.
Contributors: Mark B. Brown; Wendy Brown, UC Santa Cruz; William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins U; Thomas L. Dumm, Amherst College; J. Peter Euben, UC Santa Cruz; Russell Arben Fox; Samantha Frost, UC Santa Cruz; Shane Gunster; Jill Locke, Gustavus Adolphus College; David Paul Mandell, Reed College; Lon Troyer; Sheldon S. Wolin; Linda M. B. Zerilli, Northwestern U.
Translation Inquiries: University of Minnesota Press
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Calling in Question Jason A. Frank and John Tambornino
I INVOKING POLITICAL THEORY
1 Political Theory: From Vocation to Invocation Sheldon S. Wolin
II THEORIZING LOSS
2 Specters and Angels at the End of History Wendy Brown
3 The Politics of Nostalgia and Theories of Loss J. Peter Euben
III THINKING IN TIME
4 Can Theorists Make Time for Belief? Russell Arben Fox
5 The History of Political Thought as a "Vocation": A Pragmatist Defense David Paul Mandell
IV POLITICS AND THE ORDINARY
6 Political Theory for Losers Thomas L. Dumm
7 Feminism's Flight from the Ordinary Linda M. G. Zerilli
V POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
8 Conceptions of Science in Political Theory: A Tale of Cloaks and Daggers Mark B. Brown
9 Political Theory as a Provocation: An Ethos of Political Theory Lon Troyer
10 Gramsci, Organic Intellectuals, and Cultural Studies: Lessons for Political Theorists Shane Gunster
VI PRACTICING POLITICAL THEORY
11 Reading the Body: Hobbes, Body Politics, and the Vocation of Political Theory Samantha Frost
12 Work, Shame, and the Chain Gang: The New Civic Education Jill Locke
13 The Nobility of Democracy William E. Connolly
Contributors
Index
