David Howarth
University of Essex, Department of Government, Faculty Member
Logics of Critical Explanation proposed a methodological approach that could render the insights of Poststructuralist Discourse Theory (PDT) and post-Marxist political theory more conducive to critical empirical research. It also offered... more
Logics of Critical Explanation proposed a methodological approach that could render the insights of Poststructuralist Discourse Theory (PDT) and post-Marxist political theory more conducive to critical empirical research. It also offered a language with which to counter positivist tendencies to colonize the space of methods and research strategies, showing how PDT could facilitate both explanatory and critical endeavours. Since its publication in 2007, a number of studies have applied the logics framework to empirical cases, while critically engaging with its methodological and theoretical arguments. The main purpose of this article is to evaluate some of these developments, and to set out some future challenges faced by this research programme.
Research Interests:
Set against theoretical and strategic debates about theories of radical democracy, left populism and the commons, this article analyses and evaluates everyday struggles in Greek politics after the global financial crisis. It focusses on... more
Set against theoretical and strategic debates about theories of radical democracy, left populism and the commons, this article analyses and evaluates everyday struggles in Greek politics after the global financial crisis. It focusses on the cases of Vio.Me-the first workers' recuperated factory in Greece-and the Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko, which is the largest social solidarity health clinic in Greece. Viewed from the perspective of commoning practices, the article identifies the logics that sustain the beliefs, values, infrastructures and institutions developed at an everyday grassroots level, finding traces of an incipient radical democratic ethos and rationality at work. The new initiatives highlight crucial and often neglected organisational, prefiguring and subjective prerequisites for radical democracy, while challenging elements of left populist political strategy. Our evolving perspective also problematises their political limitations and strategic dilemmas as they struggle to constitute a viable hegemonic alternative to neoliberal rationalities and governance.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... And now, thanks to David Howarth and Jason Glynos, the wide ranging poststructuralist literature has been deployed to redescribe social science research as problematization and articulation a context-sensitive research protocol that... more
... And now, thanks to David Howarth and Jason Glynos, the wide ranging poststructuralist literature has been deployed to redescribe social science research as problematization and articulation a context-sensitive research protocol that challenges positivism's universalizing ...
Research Interests:
La teoria del discurso ha sido casi unanimemente criticada por no haber desarrollado de manera adecuada una reflexion metodologica que de alguna manera “pongan a trabajar” los postulados teoricos de su sofisticada ontologia. El presente... more
La teoria del discurso ha sido casi unanimemente criticada por no haber desarrollado de manera adecuada una reflexion metodologica que de alguna manera “pongan a trabajar” los postulados teoricos de su sofisticada ontologia. El presente texto es un estudio en esta direccion. Usando como casos de aplicacion los movimientos de protesta en Gran Bretana y Sudafrica, el texto elabora una perspectiva metodologica como “practica articulatoria”. En este sentido el texto es un intento de desarrollar una estrategia de investigacion empirica, tecnicas y metodos aplicables al analisis del discurso de base postestructuralista.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Debates in the philosophy of social science often pit lawlike against ideographic approaches to explanation, whilst dividing objective, value-free approaches from critical and engaged stances. Others foreground causal mechanisms as a unit... more
Debates in the philosophy of social science often pit lawlike against ideographic approaches to explanation, whilst dividing objective, value-free approaches from critical and engaged stances. Others foreground causal mechanisms as a unit of explanation, though they are equally split about the role of values and normativity. This article engages with these perspectives by elaborating a logics-based approach to critical explanation. By articulating the idea of social, political and fantasmatic logics, the approach emphasizes contextual particularity, yet also aspires to be explanatory and critical. It shows the added value of such an approach by investigating recent changes in the UK higher education regime.
Research Interests:
It is often alleged that governance networks offer policy actors an efficient practice of social coordination, which has the potential to be more inclusive of multiple stakeholders and more negotiated than its hierarchical or market... more
It is often alleged that governance networks offer policy actors an efficient practice of social coordination, which has the potential to be more inclusive of multiple stakeholders and more negotiated than its hierarchical or market alternatives (Kickert et al. 1997; Kooiman 2003; Koppenjan & Klijn 2004; Pierre 2000; Rhodes 1997a, 2000b; Stoker 1998). Thus far, however, the burgeoning literature on the techniques of network management has paid little attention to how best to release the democratic potential of governance networks (Hirst 2000; Olsson 2003; Sorensen & Torfing, 2005b). Of course, as Sorensen points out, much rests upon which particular version of democracy is endorsed (2005: 349). Here we adopt the theory of ‘agonistic pluralism’ as our yardstick with which to evaluate and justify putative democratic practices and processes (see Connolly 1991, 1995; Mouffe 2000, 2005; Tully 1999). In this model, actors in the policy process actively and passionately contest substantive issues as adversaries — and not simply as competitors, bargainers or enemies — recognizing each other’s right to differ and disagree.
Research Interests:
This article examines the campaign against the construction of Manchester Airport's second runway. Articulating insights from rational choice theory within a framework of discourse theory, it provides a set of theoretical tools with... more
This article examines the campaign against the construction of Manchester Airport's second runway. Articulating insights from rational choice theory within a framework of discourse theory, it provides a set of theoretical tools with which to problematize and explain the Manchester case. Attention is focused on the strategic construction of group identities and interests by leading protest brokers who organized and orchestrated the campaign. The article offers explanations of how and why conservative local residents and radical eco-warriors were able to form an unlikely working coalition to resist the expansion of the airport. The article concludes with an examination of the overall impact and significance of the campaign for local residents and green protesters.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Public Administration, Political Economy, Democratic Theory, Corporate Governance, and 15 morePolitical Science, Governance, Politics, Ideology, Local Government, Local Government and Local Development, Deliberative Democracy, Neoliberalism, Democracy, Participatory Democracy, Collaborative Governance, Crisis, Austerity, Austerity Measures, and Politics of Austerity
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
There is growing recognition that marine spatial planning is an inherently political process marked by a clash of discourses, power and conflicts of interest. Yet, there are very few attempts to make sense of and explain the political... more
There is growing recognition that marine spatial planning is an inherently political process marked by a clash of discourses, power and conflicts of interest. Yet, there are very few attempts to make sense of and explain the political practices of marine spatial planning protests in different contexts, especially the way that planners and developers create the conditions for the articulation of objections, and then develop new strategies to negotiate and mediate community resistance. Using poststructuralist discourse theory, the article analyses the politics of a proposed offshore wind energy project in Estonia within the context of the country’s marine spatial planning processes. First, through the lens of politicization, it explores the strategies of political mobilization and the rival discourses of expertise and sustainability through which residents and municipal actors have contested the offshore wind energy project. Secondly, through the lens of depoliticization, it explains ...
Research Interests:
There is growing recognition that marine spatial planning is an inherently political process marked by a clash of discourses, power and conflicts of interest. Yet, there are very few attempts to make sense of and explain the political... more
There is growing recognition that marine spatial planning is an inherently political process marked by a clash of discourses, power and conflicts of interest. Yet, there are very few attempts to make sense of and explain the political practices of marine spatial planning protests in different contexts , especially the way that planners and developers create the conditions for the articulation of objections, and then develop new strategies to negotiate and mediate community resistance. Using poststructuralist discourse theory, the article analyses the politics of a proposed offshore wind energy project in Estonia within the context of the country's marine spatial planning processes. First, through the lens of politicization, it explores the strategies of political mobilization and the rival discourses of expertise and sustainability through which residents and municipal actors have contested the offshore wind energy project. Secondly, through the lens of depolit-icization, it explains the discursive and legalistic strategies employed by developers, planners and an Administrative Court to displace-spatially and temporally-the core issues of contestation, thus legitimizing the offshore wind energy plan. We argue that the spaces created by the pre-planning conjuncture offered the most conducive conditions for residents to voice concerns about the proposed project in a dialogical fashion, whereas the marine spatial planning and post-planning phases became mired in a therapeutic-style consultation, set alongside rigid and
Research Interests:
There is growing recognition that marine spatial planning is an inherently political process marked by a clash of discourses, power and conflicts of interest. Yet, there are very few attempts to make sense of and explain the political... more
There is growing recognition that marine spatial planning is an inherently political process marked by a clash of discourses, power and conflicts of interest. Yet, there are very few attempts to make sense of and explain the political practices of marine spatial planning protests in different contexts , especially the way that planners and developers create the conditions for the articulation of objections, and then develop new strategies to negotiate and mediate community resistance. Using poststructuralist discourse theory, the article analyses the politics of a proposed offshore wind energy project in Estonia within the context of the country's marine spatial planning processes. First, through the lens of politicization, it explores the strategies of political mobilization and the rival discourses of expertise and sustainability through which residents and municipal actors have contested the offshore wind energy project. Secondly, through the lens of depolit-icization, it explains the discursive and legalistic strategies employed by developers, planners and an Administrative Court to displace – spatially and temporally – the core issues of contestation, thus legitimizing the offshore wind energy plan. We argue that the spaces created by the pre-planning conjuncture offered the most conducive conditions for residents to voice concerns about the proposed project in a dialogical fashion, whereas the marine spatial planning and post-planning phases became mired in a therapeutic-style consultation, set alongside rigid and
Research Interests:
Born in Ales in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia in 1891, Antonio Gramsci was a Marxist theorist and militant, who made a lasting theoretical contribution to Marxist and non-Marxist political thought. Having completed his education at... more
Born in Ales in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia in 1891, Antonio Gramsci was a Marxist theorist and militant, who made a lasting theoretical contribution to Marxist and non-Marxist political thought. Having completed his education at Turin University in 1915, Gramsci joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and turned his hand to journalism. In the spring of 1919, along with Palmiro Togliatti and others, Gramsci helped found the New Order (L'Ordine Nuovo), which gave expression to the Council Movement that had taken root in the industrial cities of northern Italy. Two years later he and others broke with the PSI to found the Italian Communist Party (PCI), with Gramsci becoming its general secretary in 1924. As a result of his continuing political activities, Gramsci was arrested in Rome in November 1926. In accordance with a series of “exceptional laws” enacted by the fascist-dominated Italian legislature, he was committed to solitary confinement at the Regina Coeli prison. Suffering almost continuous physical pain and psychic torment, he endured a ten-year term of imprisonment. He died in April 1937 from a cerebral hemorrhage, only a few days after he was released from prison.Keywords:hegemony;historical materialism;ideologyhegemony;historical materialism;ideology
Research Interests:
Copyright © Manchester University Press 2000 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly... more
Copyright © Manchester University Press 2000 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly or in part without the express ...
... of more pessimistk ladings of late capitalism, whether from a post-modernist or and-modernist perspective, I refer to theorists of the Frankfurt school such as ... Howarth, D. and NorvaL A. Forthcoming. 'Subjectivity and Strategy... more
... of more pessimistk ladings of late capitalism, whether from a post-modernist or and-modernist perspective, I refer to theorists of the Frankfurt school such as ... Howarth, D. and NorvaL A. Forthcoming. 'Subjectivity and Strategy in South African Resistance Politics: Prospects for a ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... shared way of apprehending the world', which 'enables those who subscribe to it to interpret bits of ... exceed the strictures of the syllogism yet manifestly operate and function in... more
... shared way of apprehending the world', which 'enables those who subscribe to it to interpret bits of ... exceed the strictures of the syllogism yet manifestly operate and function in real-world contexts of argument.' In fact contemporary theorists working from an interpretive and post ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this article, I argue that power and hegemony are vital for critically explaining a range of policymaking practices. Developing the basic assumptions of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's poststructuralist discourse... more
In this article, I argue that power and hegemony are vital for critically explaining a range of policymaking practices. Developing the basic assumptions of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's poststructuralist discourse theory, in which discourse is understood as an ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... of more pessimistk ladings of late capitalism, whether from a post-modernist or and-modernist perspective, I refer to theorists of the Frankfurt school such as ... Howarth, D. and NorvaL A. Forthcoming. 'Subjectivity and Strategy... more
... of more pessimistk ladings of late capitalism, whether from a post-modernist or and-modernist perspective, I refer to theorists of the Frankfurt school such as ... Howarth, D. and NorvaL A. Forthcoming. 'Subjectivity and Strategy in South African Resistance Politics: Prospects for a ...