UNIVERSAL POLITICS

In Universal Politics Ilan Kapoor and Zahi Zalloua argue that in the face of the relentless advance of global capitalism a universal politics is needed today more than ever. But rather than appealing to the narrow particularism of identity politics the authors argue for a negative universality rooted in social antagonism i.e. shared experiences of exploitation and marginalization. This conception of shared struggle avoids the trap of a neocolonial universalism while foregrounding the politics of the systematically dispossessed and excluded. The book examines what a universal politics might look like in the context of key current global sites of struggle including climate change workers struggles the Palestinian question the refugee crisis Black Lives Matter MeToo Political Islam the Bolivian state under Morales the European Union and COVID19. It also discusses the main political ingredients gaps and limitations of a universal politics.