MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATİON

MINOR POLITICS

Spring, 2018-2019

Instructor: Dr. Onur Kara

oneylka@gmail.com

Exams & Grading:

Reflection Papers (10 X 3): 30 %

Presentation: 30 %
Final Exam: 40 %

Course Description

This course aims to understand and think on the theory of “minor politics”. Minor politics is a
new field of politics with its main characteristics that distinguish it from the field of major
politics. The course is composed of four main parts. In the first part, we will try to detect,
understand and discuss the features and dynamics of major politics. The representation and
the politics of conflict and reaction are two main pillars that define the substance of major
politics. In that sense, we will try to follow these and other characteristics of the major politics
in the history of political thought. We will analyze some important texts of classical
liberalism, marxism, conservatism, post-marxism, contemporary political theory and also the
theory of social movements. In the second part, we will try to define the main features of
minor politics. In general, we will focus on three main ones, namely prefiguration,
immanence and affirmation and the politics of friendship and affects. In order to see the
originality of minor politics and its main characteristics, we will go through different texts and
thinkers but we will mostly follow the Spinozist line of politics, continuing with Nietzsche
and Deleuze and Guattari. In the third part of the course, we will analyze the existing studies
carried on some fields like urban, ecology, migration, gender, etc. In that sense, we will
discuss these cases and the perspectives informing them to reveal the contemporary
tendencies of shift from major towards minor politics. Throughout the semester, the students
will make micro-scale researches on the practice of minor politics in such fields as ecology,
gender equality, LGTBI, education, sport, media activism, prison studies and any other
autonomous activisms. They will consider and evaluate alternative minor formations and
activisms appearing in these fields of life, from minor political viewpoint that has been gained
during the course. They will present their field researches, findings and considerations.
According to the conceptual framework and the data on the practice of minor politics, the
students will be able to attest the existence of minor politics as a new field of politics and
discuss its limitations and shortcomings, together with its promises. In that sense, such a
course on “minor politics” will enable participants to comprehend the politics of daily life and
affects when they also cover and discuss the literature of new social movements, the theories
on the political, main concepts in political philosophy, political sociology and the studies of
cultural politics as well. Moreover, the participants will experience doing a minor scale field
research in the context of politics and sociology.
 COURSE OUTLINE

Part I
The main features of “major politics”
Representation and politics of conflict and reaction

- Week 1
First meeting and discussion on “the political”

- Week 2
Classical Liberalism and Marxism

• Hobbes, T., Leviathan, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998: Part I - Chapters:
6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16 and Part II - Chapters: 17-21

• Marx, K. and Engels, F., Communist Manifesto, Verso: London, 2016

- Week 3
Conservatism and Post-Marxism

• Schmitt, C. The Concept of the Political, trans. by George Schwab, University of

Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007, pp: 19-79

• Laclau E. and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards A Radical

Democratic Politics, Verso: London, 2001, Chapter 3, pp: 93-148

• Mouffe, C., On The Political, Routledge, 2005: Chapter 2, pp: 8-34

- Week 4
Contemporary Political Thought and Contentious Politics in Social Movements

• Rancière, J., Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy, University of Minnesota Press,

London, 1999, Chapters 1 and 5, pp: 1-20 and 95-122

• Tilly, C., and Tarrow, S., Contentious Politics (Second Edition), Chapter 1, Oxford
University Press, 2015, pp: 1-45

Part II
The main features of “minor politics”
Prefiguration, immanence and affirmation, politics of friendship and affects

- Week 5
From “social movements” to “prefigurative politics”

• Dixon, C., Another Politics: Talking Across Today’s Transformative Movements,

Chapter 1, University of California Press, Oakland, California, 2014, pp: 1-82
• Castells, M., Networks of Outrage and Hope, Social Movements in the Internet Age,
Chapter 1 and 5, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2012, pp: 1-19 and 114-158

• Yates, L., “Rethinking Prefiguration: Alternatives, Micropolitics and Goals in Social

Movements”, in Social Movement Studies, 14:1, Winter, 2015, pp. 1-21

- Week 6
From “social movements” to “prefigurative politics”

• Haenfler, R. et all, “Lifestyle Movements: Exploring the Intersection of Lifestyle and

Social Movements” Social Movement Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1–20, January 2012

• Mathijs van de Sande, “Fighting with Tools: Prefiguration and Radical Politics in the
Twenty-First Century”, Rethinking Marxism, 2015 Vol. 27, No. 2, 177–194

• Chatterton, P. and Pickerill, J., “Everyday activism and transitions towards post-
capitalist worlds”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, NS 35, 2010:
pp: 475–490

• Maeckelbergh, M., “Doing is Believing: Prefiguration as Strategic Practice in the

Alterglobalization Movement”, Social Movement Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, January
2011, pp: 1–20

• Darby, S., “Dynamic Resistance: Third-Sector Processes for Transforming

Neoliberalization”, Antipode, Vol. 48 No. 4 2016, pp. 977–999

- Week 7
Immanence and affirmation

• Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., Anti-Oedipus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Chapter 2,

University of Minnesota Press, London, 1983, pp: 51-138

• Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., A Thousand Plateaus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia,

Parts from the Chapter 1, 4, 9, 10, University of Minnesota Press, London, 2005, pp:
3-26, 75-111, 208-310

• Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, University of

Minnesota Press, London, 1986

• Nietzsche, F., On the Genealogy of Morality, Chapter 1 and 2, Cambridge University

Press, New York, 2006, pp: 24-96

- Week 8
Politics of friendship and affects

• Spinoza, B., Ethics, Chapter 3, 4 and 5. The Collected Works of Spinoza Volume I, ed.
Curley, E. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1985, pp: 491-617
 • Baker, U., “Siyasal Alanın Oluşumu Üzerine Bir Deneme”, in Dolaylı Eylem, ed. Ege
Berensel, Birikim Yayınları, İstanbul, 2015, pp. 13-79

Part III
Tendencies of shift from major to minor politics

- Week 9
“Right to the city” or urban movement
(Three of the following articles will be discussed in the class)

• Reedy, P., et. all, “Organizing for Individuation: Alternative Organizing, Politics and
New Identities”, Organization Studies, 2016: 1-21

• Mudu, P., “Resisting and Challenging Neoliberalism: The Development of Italian

Social Centers”, Antipode, 2014: 917-941

• Ruggiero, V., “New Social Movements and the ‘centri sociali’ in Milan” Sociological
Review, 2000, pp: 167-185

• Yates, L. “Everyday politics, social practices and movement networks: Daily life in
Barcelona’s social centres”, The British Journal of Sociology 2015 Volume 66 Issue 2,
236-258

• Arampatzi, A., “Contentious spatialities in an era of austerity: Everyday politics and

‘struggle communities’ in Athens, Greece”, Political Geography 60 (2017) pp: 47-56

• Rishbeth, C. and Rogaly, B., “Sitting outside: Conviviality, self-care and the design of
benches in urban public space”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
2018:43, pp: 284–298.

• Dee, E. T. C., “Institutionalization as Path to Autonomy: An Anarchist Social Center

in Brighton”, Space and Culture, , Vol. 21(2), 2018, pp: 192–204

- Week 10
Ecology
(Three of the following articles will be discussed in the class)

• Henfrey, L. and Penha-Lopes, G., “Policy and community-led action on sustainability

and climate change: Paradox and possibility in the interstices”, Environmental
Innovation and Societal Transitions 29 (2018) pp: 52–54

• Anke Fischer and Kirsty Holstead, “Community-led initiatives’ everyday politics for
sustainability – Conflicting rationalities and aspirations for change?” Environment and
Planning A 2017, Vol. 49(9) pp: 1986–2006

• Stewart Barr and Justin Pollard, “Geographies of Transition: Narrating environmental

activism in an age of climate change and ‘Peak Oil’”, Environment and Planning A
2017, Vol. 49(1) pp: 47–64
 • North, P., “The politics of climate activism in the UK: a social movement analysis”,
Environment and Planning A, Volume 43, 2011, pp: 1581 - 1598

- Week 11
Gender
(Three of the following articles will be discussed in the class)

• Wilkinson, E., “The emotions least relevant to politics? Queering autonomous

activism”, Emotion, Space and Society 2 (2009) 36–43

• Brown, G., “Thinking beyond homonormativity: performative explorations of diverse

gay economies”, Environment and Planning A 2009, volume 41, pp: 1496 – 1510

• Brown, G., “Thinking beyond homonormativity: performative explorations of diverse

gay economies”, Environment and Planning A, 2009, volume 41, pp: 1496 – 1510

• Jeffrey, A. et. all, “Drinking coffee, rehearsing civility, making subjects”, Political
Geography, 67 (2018), pp: 125-134

- Week 12
Labor and Migration
(Three of the following articles will be discussed in the class)

• Kokkinidis , G., “Spaces of possibilities: Workers’ self-management in Greece”,

Organization, 2014, pp: 1-22

• Meek, D. and Simonian, L., “Transforming space and society? The political ecology
of education in the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement’s Jornada de
Agroecologıa”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2017, Vol. 35(3):
513–532

• MacKenzie, R., et all., “Networks of Support for New Migrant Communities:

Institutional Goals versus Substantive Goals?”, Urban Studies, 49(3) 631–647,
February 2012

• Dyson, J. and Jeffrey, C., “Everyday prefiguration: Youth social action in north India”
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2018:43, pp: 573–585.

Part IV
Presentations

- Week 13-14
Students will present the findings of their field research and there will be discussions on
both the potentials and limitations of the minor politics