Book Section
The essay discusses the notion of counterpublics in the context of the creation of the Solidarność labour union in Poland in 1980. The proposed reading of these events not only offers a feminist recontextualization against the grain of Western liberal triumphalism, but furthermore explores the implications of postcolonial thought for the analysis of the recent history of a Central European country as well as for the discussion concerning the public spheres of the excluded and marginalized. The thought of Eduard Glissant, as well as that of Gloria Anzaldua and Gayatri Spivak, allows for a rethinking of these events and theories in a global perspective, thus facilitating a universalizing practice based on a particular, localized experience.
Keywords: Counterpublics; Counterpublic; Commons; Public sphere; Solidarność; Deleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Félix; Wallerstein, Immanuel; Rancière, Jacques
Title
Errant Counterpublics
Subtitle
‘Solidarność’ and the Politics of the Weak
Author(s)
Ewa Majewska
Identifier
Description
The essay discusses the notion of counterpublics in the context of the creation of the Solidarność labour union in Poland in 1980. The proposed reading of these events not only offers a feminist recontextualization against the grain of Western liberal triumphalism, but furthermore explores the implications of postcolonial thought for the analysis of the recent history of a Central European country as well as for the discussion concerning the public spheres of the excluded and marginalized. The thought of Eduard Glissant, as well as that of Gloria Anzaldua and Gayatri Spivak, allows for a rethinking of these events and theories in a global perspective, thus facilitating a universalizing practice based on a particular, localized experience.
Is Part Of
Place
Berlin
Publisher
ICI Berlin Press
Date
20 September 2022
Subject
Counterpublics
Counterpublic
Commons
Public sphere
Solidarność
Deleuze, Gilles
Guattari, Félix
Wallerstein, Immanuel
Rancière, Jacques
Rights
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Language
en-GB
page start
177
page end
199
Source
Errans: Going Astray, Being Adrift, Coming to Nothing, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 24 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 177–99

References

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Cite as: Ewa Majewska, ‘Errant Counterpublics: “Solidarność” and the Politics of the Weak’, in Errans: Going Astray, Being Adrift, Coming to Nothing, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 24 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 177-99 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-24_8>