The (Im)Possibility of Anti-Systemic Politics: Uprisings, Exilic Spaces, and Alain Badiou

Abstract

The world-system is in crisis, and a flurry of uprisings challenge the mantra that 'there is no alternative' to capitalism. However, some questions remain. What will replace the global capitalist mode of production, and how will those aspiring to transform the system do so? These questions are of relevance to three separate but related domains of research: (1) the study of anti-systemic movements by world-systems analysts; (2) the study of exilic spaces by scholars using an anarchist perspective; and (3) the work of French Philosopher Alain Badiou. This article stages a discussion between these three areas, locating areas in each tradition that can benefit from engagement with each other's work. It pays special attention to ways in which social scientific analyses of anti-capitalist and anti-State uprisings can expand their explanatory scope and answer some important theoretical questions, by incorporating key insights derived from Badiou's framework on politics, uprisings, and universality. Likewise, it shows how Badiouian literature might enrich and expand its conceptualization of these issues by engaging with world-systemic and anarchist literatures on the political, cultural, and intellectual aspects of strategizing for social change.