Infrapolitics

Description

Abe Walker:

Shakaitis (note: in the book, Imaginal Machines) draws heav­ily on the notion of infrapol­i­tics, as posited by James Scott and pop­u­lar­ized by the cul­tural his­to­rian Robin Kel­ley. Much like Deleuze’s minor pol­i­tics, Kelley’s infrapol­i­tics sug­gest a “hid­den tran­script of power…or a space that is some­what encoded or oth­er­wise made less com­pre­hen­si­ble to those in power.” Shukaitis argues that in order to avoid recu­per­a­tion, resis­tance must oper­ate largely in the sphere of infrapol­i­tics — beyond the watch­ful gaze of the state — and speak in ways that defy under­stand­ing. Per­haps the answer to Guy­a­tri Spivak’s pre­scient ques­tion “Can the Sub­al­tern Speak?” is a defin­i­tive “yes” — but not in ways that are uni­ver­sally intelligible." (http://www.gcadvocate.com/2010/02/radical-imaginings/)