On Politics as Effectuation: Jean‐Luc Nancy’s Encounter with the Hegelian Monarch

Being in Myth and Community: Resistance, Lived Existence, and Democracy in a North England Mill Town

“…Thus Nancy seeks to problematise the relation of leadership, subjectivity, and the moment(s) that gives effect to a decision such that``it consists in neither submission to the Subject, nor in a simple symbolism'' (page 142). [For further discussion of Nancy's reading of the Hegelian Monarch, see Gaon (2005) and Roupa (2005). ]…”

“…Complementing these geographies, thinking being in myth and myth in being provides a nuanced perspective on the governmental power of myth and the power of myth in resistance to shape people and placesöreminding us always of myths' totalising tendencies even when invoked in resistance to injustice. Reading the series of events in Whitefield with Nancy raises questions about how we can create a politics of effectuation (Roupa, 2005) with its associated logics of existence, performance, and union (Nancy, 1993a) that do not narrow the discursive or mythic terrain but provide for a progressive politics of place (Massey, 2005). Mouffe's work moves toward this, but Nancian thinking provides avenues into the everyday politics of existence that is more opaque in Mouffe's ontology.…”