In Keywords (1976), Raymond Williams devised a "vocabulary" that reflected the vast social transformations of the post-war period. He revealed how these transformations could be grasped by investigating changes in word usage and meaning. Keywords for Radicals—part homage, part development—asks: What vocabulary might illuminate the social transformations marking our own contested present? How do these words define the imaginary of today's radical left?
With insights from dozens of scholars and troublemakers, Keywords for Radicals explores the words that shape our political landscape. Each entry highlights a term's contested variations, traces its evolving usage, and speculates about what its historical mutations can tell us. More than a glossary, this is a crucial study of the power of language and the social contradictions hidden within it.
What People Are Saying
"An extraordinary volume that provides nothing less than a detailed cognitive mapping of the terrain for everyone who wants to engage in radical politics."—Slavoj Žižek, author of Living in the End Times
“Keywords for Radicals recognizes that language is both a weapon and terrain of struggle, and that all of us committed to changing our social and material reality, to making a world justice-rich and oppression-free, cannot drop words such as ‘democracy,’ ‘occupation,’ ‘colonialism,’ ‘race,’ ‘sovereignty,’ or ‘love’ without a fight. —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
“A primer for a new era of political protest.” —Jack Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity
“This keywords upgrade puts powerful weapons into revolutionaries' hands. Unexpected entries expand into new terrain.… Indispensable.” —Jodi Dean, author of The Communist Horizon
About the Authors
Kelly Fritsch is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto.
Clare O'Connor is a doctoral student in Communication at the University of Southern California.
A.K. Thompson teaches social theory at Fordham University in New York.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editors — Introduction
Kelly Fritsch — Accessible
Clare O’Connor — Accountability
AK Thompson — Agency
Mab Segrest — Allies
Maia Ramnath — Authority
Anna Agathangelou — Bodies
Christine Kelly — Care
Johanna Brenner — Class
Lorenzo Veracini — Colonialism
George Caffentzis — Commons
Sarah Lamble — Community
Mandy Hiscocks — Conspiracy
Robert McRuer — Crip
Nina Power — Demand
Donatella della Porta — Democracy
Ruth Kinna — Domination
Kate Kaul — Experience
Simon Wallace — Friend
Rasheedah Phillips — Future
Tammy Kovich — Gender
Richard Day — Hegemony
Bryan D Palmer — History
Ana Cecilia Dinerstein — Hope
Himani Bannerji — Ideology
Sumayya Kassamali — Intellectual
Sam Gindin — Labor
Joy James — Leadership
Robin Marie Averbeck — Liberal
Heather Davis — Love
Rosemary Hennessy — Materialism
Eliza Steinbock — Misogyny
Sunera Thobani — Nation
John Bellamy Foster — Nature
Sara Matthews — Occupation
Justin Podur — Oppression
Deborah Gould — Politics
Stefan Kipfer — Populism
Christian Scholl — Prefiguration
Douglas Williams — Privilege
Natalie Kouri-Towe — Queer
Conor Tomás Reed — Race
Jaleh Mansoor — Representation
Silvia Federici — Reproduction
Miranda Joseph — Responsibility
Thomas Nail — Revolution
Rebecca Schein — Rights
Markus Kip — Solidarity
Stacy Douglas — Sovereignty
Kanishka Goonewardena — Space
Patrick Bond — Sustainable
Dan Irving — Trans*/-
David McNally — Utopia
Alan Shandro — Vanguard
Heather Hax — Victory
Peter Gelderloos — Violence
Neil Balan — War
Illan Pappé — Zionism
References
Appendix