Doing a Phenomenology of Political Life

Starting from the hypothesis that all human forms of life have a political dimension – be it clearly expressed or hidden, conscious or unconscious – this volume examines the ways in which political life can be fruitfully analyzed with the help of phenomenological methodologies. Examining issues of power dynamics as they relate to pervasive epistemic and axiological commitments as well as deeply seated socio-cultural and institutional practices, this text opens and develops, through a radical critical lens and a commitment to the emancipatory potential of theoretical work, innovative paths for phenomenological investigations of the complex political aspects of our shared lived experiences. These investigations, both focused on the content matter at hand and on their own methodology, draw on phenomenological resources as well as resources from other philosophical traditions and fields, such as critical theory, feminist philosophy, and queer theory.
While various theories in political philosophy nurture an open suspicion about subject-oriented philosophical approaches (c.f., Adorno, Althusser, for example), this volume questions the status of the subject of political experience in order to explore multiple forms of political subjectivation. These guiding questions allow an investigation into a new field of research where phenomenological methodologies can help negotiate the political challenges of our time. This book appeals to students and researchers working in phenomenology and related disciplines.

Andreea Smaranda Aldea is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, USA. She held positions as Fulbright Finland Research Scholar, Kone Foundation Senior Research Scholar, and Postdoctoral Mellon Research Fellow in Philosophy at Dartmouth College, Leslie Center for the Humanities (2012–2014). Besides numerous journal articles, she is the co-editor of a special issue of Continental Philosophy Review, with Amy Allen, entitled "The Historical A Priori in Husserl and Foucault" and a special issue of Husserl Studies, with Julia Jansen, entitled "Imagination in Husserlian Phenomenology: Variations and Modalities." Her book Phenomenology as Critique: Why Method Matters (co-edited with David Carr and Sara Heinämaa) came out with Routledge in March 2022. She is currently finalizing a book on the role of the imagination in phenomenology understood as radical critique of the present.
Délia Popa is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, USA. Her first book was on Emmanuel Levinas: Les aventures de l’économie subjective et son ouverture à l’altérité (Lumen, 2007). She isthe author of Apparence et réalité. Phénoménologie et psychologie de l’imagination (Olms, 2012) and co-editor of La portée pratique de la phénoménologie. Normativité, critique sociale et psychopathologie (2014), Approches phénoménologiques de l’inconscient (2015) and Describing the Unconscious. Phenomenological Perspectives on the Subject of Psychoanalysis (2020). She also co-edited the special issues “Gestures” of Studia Phaenomenologica and “Africana Philosophy” of Symposium. The Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy (2022). Her current research focuses on the problem of becoming a stranger and social exclusion, on the relationship between imagination and political responsibility, as well as on the phenomenology of gestures.