A1 Journal article (refereed)
Dialectic and social heterogeneity in Ernesto Laclau (2020)

Mihkelsaar, J. (2020). Dialectic and social heterogeneity in Ernesto Laclau. Trames: Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 24(4), 533-548. https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2020.4.04

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Mihkelsaar, Janar

Journal or series: Trames: Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences

ISSN: 1406-0922

eISSN: 1736-7514

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 24

Issue number: 4

Pages range: 533-548

Publisher: Estonian Academy Publishers

Publication country: Estonia

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2020.4.04

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/72901

Abstract

The present article aims to examine critically Laclau’s claim that the trend toward social heterogenization revokes the Dialectic, or, more specifically, the clear and strict line of demarcation between what falls within the Dialectic and what falls outside of it. Polemicizing with the assumption of this reading, I argue that the appearance of a radical heterogeneity rather exposes the undecidability of relations between the Dialectic and what is a heterogeneity. To undergo the experience of this relation means not only to confront something that dislocates the Dialectic, but also what makes it what it is. The concrete determination of this limit relation is precisely what is at stake in the populist construction of the people, the political articulation of a popular identity. Against this backdrop, I argue that it is not so much Laclau as Agamben who opens the possibility to think about a heterogeneity non-dialectically.

Keywords: dialectics; heterogeneity; homogeneity; populism

Free keywords: Agamben; Laclau; relation

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 1