ACTIVE SUBJECTS, PASSIVE REVOLUTION Agility, cleverness and irony in contemporary society

• Published in: Cultural studies (London, England) Vol. 22; no. 6; pp. 837 - 849
• Main Author: Barfuss, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01.11.2008
• Subjects: cunning; de Certeau; Dialectics; Gramsci; Gramsci, Antonio; Identity Politics; Irony; Modern Society; Neoliberalism; passive revolution; politics of culture; Revolutions; subject

Neoliberal politics can be defined with a Gramscian term as "passive revolution"; an act of making history, that is, without conveying to people the idea that they are an active part in its shaping. Apart from demoralization, this politics has also brought on a new active subject whose key...