Love and Revolution

Abstract

Critical sociologists have long recognized the intersections between love and revolution. For the most part, however, our understanding of love and its relevance for revolution remains vague. My article seeks to remedy this limitation. It starts by sketching the social and personal contexts of alienation, indicating that in today's capitalist world genuine love is revolutionary in itself. It then specifies what love means, what types of love exist, and what revolutionary love implies in theory and practice. The next section introduces the political cultures of loving revolution concept and applies it to the Indian independence movement led by Gandhi. The conclusion discusses how potential revolutionaries might benefit from my interpretation of love and revolution.

Feeling Race: Theorizing the Racial Economy of Emotions

“…Here I am not conjuring romantic love, but the “political love” (Hardt 2011) necessary for transforming the world. Chabot (2008:812) argues that this love requires. .…”

“…Leaving aside King’s belief that non-violent resistance was the only way of achieving real change, his idea of “power infused with love and justice” is crucial. On this point, Chabot (2008:813), using King’s and Gandhi’s ideas, challenges us to “expand our social capacity for revolutionary love” by changing “our practical ways of life, both in private and public spheres.” Following Chabot, I end this address with some observations about RE in our sociological house and with a call to change “our practical ways of life, both in private and public spheres.”…”

An argument for love in intercultural education for teacher education

“…In developing a loving intercultural education, I draw on Zembylas (2014) andChabot (2008), who view love as a rigorous, transformative and revolutionary force. Whereas love is commonly seen and treated as a soft, wishful and romanticised idealwith such treatment usually utterly lacking in theoretical rigourthis is not my approach.…”

“Shame at being human” as a transformative political concept and praxis: Pedagogical possibilities

“…My discussion of shame as revolutionary urges critical educators to think that if they wish to contribute to transformation, it is valuable to consider the possible openings created by Agamben’s biopolitics of resistance and ethics of alterity as well as Deleuze’s notion of shame as an everyday event; these ideas move students and teachers away from the cycle of negativity upheld by dominant shame discourses. Importantly, the notion of shame-as-revolutionary does not deny or repress its negative referents, but rather encourages critical educators “to confront oppressive circumstances and painful experience directly, as long as we translate potentially destructive emotions into constructive dispositions and behavior” (Chabot, 2008, p. 816). Needless to say, to turn negative shame into shame as revolutionary is not an easy task, but rather a patient, knowledgeable, and disciplined effort that prioritizes critical interrogation of shame as a way of confronting both “the shame at being human” and the “shame of the world.”…”