John Holloway (sociologist)

John Holloway ( born 1947 in Dublin) is an Irish- Mexican political scientist. He has taught since 1993 at the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Benemérita (BPRD ) in Puebla / Mexico. In his publications, he draws on various unorthodox neo-Marxist theoretical traditions, such as the Italian workerism or Critical Theory, and interprets them in part or newly developed them further. His interpretations of these theories also show a strong influence of the Zapatista movement in Mexico. Their rejection of state power and their understanding of theory, which is in the phrase " preguntando caminamos " ( go ahead, we questioningly ) can be summarized, the Holloway quoted again and again, gave his work the decisive cut and therefore is also due to its wide reception.

• 3.1 Papers

Theory

Central theses

A political process of change he analyzed along the following line:

• The Scream: as a consistent consciousness of non- identity. He sees the political subject in the alienation torn, subjectivity is conceivable only in negation. Holloway reads the new critical theory and he refuses a cultural pessimism: the ratios are not objective, they must be made ​​subjectively and over again, ie fetishism is not fully completed.
• The deeds and the done: taking an action he summarizes all social activities, not only wage labor; under the done the capital that appropriates the content of the work.
• Anti-power: it works in a completely different logic that does not mirror images ( countervailing power ) is to the ruling power. The aim of the anti-power is a completely different than that of the currently prevailing power of capital, which is about the realization of the value. Anti-power seeks rather the production of sociality, ie unrestricted access to social wealth. Holloway sees this as no longer the state as the center of the controversy.

Subject -oriented approach: "The Scream" as the starting point of the search

The starting point of hollowayschen theory is the cry of the subject. This cry is the dissonance, the contradiction between what " is " and the " not-yet ", the reality of the present and a desirable future. Not " the rational self- Sit back and over - the - secrets - of - existence - ponder - as the traditional image of the, thinker ' provides ', but from the dissonance ( between " actual " and" not-yet " ) company resulting dissatisfaction ( negativity ), the anger, is what drives the thoughts.

There are two questions that attempts to answer Holloway in the following: First, the question of the necessity of this subject-oriented approach in scientific discourse and secondly, the question of the cause of the cry, an analysis of the "actual" with the aim of vertices of a vision of a possible work out different future.

The cry is in the contradiction between the current social conditions and a desirable other world, or otherwise: between analysis and vision. Only a dialectical handling of these two dimensions, ie a scientific discourse that wants to realize the vision and every step of subjecting it to a new analysis and concludes from new steps, is the cry, the desire for change requirements. It disassociates itself from the so realistic and normative theories of society from which either descriptively the "actual" try to explain and objectify the subject, or set the normative vision and thus exclude always a new assessment by the analysis. Holloway thus refers, in contrast to Foucault's " bitterness of history", which inevitably leads to an adjustment of expectations, positive effect on the early Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, which starts with Ernst Bloch from the fact that from the horror which arises from the analysis, the hope for a better world grows. The Scream experiences its theoretical force not from the future existence of the " not-yet ", but from his present existence as a possibility. Of the current social circumstances, any other world is negated in the now, but it exists than this very negation.

The social flow of doing

Dialectics and negative thinking: For this approach, the main features for the rest of the theory, finding a way to overcome the cause of the cry arise. Herein Holloway is closely related to Karl Marx's critique of political economy in "Capital ". His "intent [ ... ] is, those questions that are often described as ' Marxist ', situate in the problem of negative thinking, negative thinking to give in the hope of enabling content and sharpen the Marxist critique of capitalism ". He takes over from Marx the adoption of the social character of the division of labor work ( " The division of labor is the national economic expression of the social character of labor within estrangement " ), and abstracted this to the concept of doing. Every action is socially, because there the other is due to the actions and even re- doing other conditional ( " Whatever I do, it's part of the social flow of doing, in which the condition of what I do have Done - doing (or) another is in the acts of others provides the means for my actions. "). This " social flow of doing ," a condition of the free development of the subject, Holloway under the term of creative power.

" To change the world without taking power "

Creative power is social. On the other hand it provides the instrumental power. Also this is a doing, but it is a social flow of doing interrupting Tun It is a work that is the free action negates the other, it takes the agent to do. If there are instrumental power, then there is the creative power only as a negation. The existence of the instrumental power is the cause of the cry. The content with which Holloway fills the concept of instrumental power, Marx's analysis of capitalism are taken: First, the expropriation of the doers ( of workers) by the means of doing ( means of production ) by private ownership. Second, the fetish of capital, people's behavior according to the rules of commodity exchange, which appear as a matter of course - natural; it provides Holloway into the center of his argument. In this context, it turns out that the instrumental to the creative power in a dependent relationship is (For Marx, this is discussed in the context of alienation ). The own actions only creates the product, and thus the basis of the Fetish ', ' doing negates itself. " This dependence of the doers of DONE, the instrumental power of doing, constitutes the crisis of capitalism

Holloway goes from the failure of the left attempts to change the world in the 20th century. In the context of power described above discussion it crystallizes out that these experiments influenced whether reformist or revolutionary, a commonality is based on: The attempt to form a counter - power to seize state power. If now, however, lies the cause of the scream, who is the starting point of all thought in existence of instrumental power, then wore the establishment of a counter - power that also is himself again instrumental power, with only the further continuation of these. Rather, it must go to the creation of an anti - power to change the world.

The anti-power becomes the embodiment of the scream. In this case, the cry a negative (destructive ) and a positive ( constitutive ) has page. Firstly, it is resistance against instrumental power, spreading himself ownership, on the other hand it constitutes freedom, where capitalism can not live and thus enables creative power. These clearances require collaborative forms of organization ( the revolution ) are different depending on the phase of the struggle. Revolution here describes not a point in time, but a process that liberated man is at its end. The fetish of the property must socializing friendship, love, solidarity and community are facing. Holloway does not propose a dogmatic set way of change, but insists on the dialectic between analysis and vision within a fragmented movement, which joins the sociality of doing flick -like.