Agamben and Politics ─ A Critical Introduction

Tracing how the logic of inoperativity works in the domains of language, law, history and humanity, Agamben and Politics systematically introduces the fundamental concepts of Agamben's political thought and a critically interprets his insights in the wider context of contemporary philosophy.

Agamben's commentators and critics tend to focus on his powerful critique of the Western political tradition in the Homo Sacer series. But this narrow focus serves to obscure the overall structure of Agamben's political thought, which is neither negative nor critical but affirmative. Sergei Prozorov brings out the affirmative mood of Agamben's political thought, focusing on the concept of inoperativity, which has been central to Agamben's work from his earliest writings.

Sergei Prozorov is University Lecturer in World Politics and Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki.

Prozorov is the author of six monographs, the most recent being Ontology and World Politics and Theory of the Political Subject, and numerous journal articles on political philosophy and international relations.