Jeremy Gilbert 
Common Ground 
Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism

Under neoliberalism the cult of individualism reigns supreme, forced upon us through culture, media and politics, it fatally limits our capacity to escape the current crisis of democratic politics. In Common Ground, Jeremy Gilbert asks us to reimagine the philosophical relationship between individuality, collectivity, affect and agency, proposing a radically non-individualist mode of imagining social life.



The book considers how opponents of neoliberal hegemony, and of the individualist tradition in Western thought, might protect collective creativity and democratic possibility. Examination of the historical roots of individualism’s ‘Leviathan logic’ and fresh readings of theorists such as Hobbes, Lazzarato, Simondon, Lyotard, Laclau and Deleuze and Guattari, force us to confront longstanding assumptions about the nature of the individual and of collectivity. Exploration of this fundamental faultline in contemporary politics is accompanied by analysis of the different ideas and practices of collectivity, from conservative notions of hierarchical and patriarchal communities to the politics of ‘horizontality’ and ‘the commons’ which lie at the heart of radical movements today. Through an understanding of the philosophy shaping contemporary relations and disrupting hegemonic values, we can re-imagine the present moment.

Table of Content

Preface

1. Postmodernity and the Crisis of Democracy

2. A War of All Against All: Neoliberal Hegemony and Competitive Individualism

3. Leviathan Logics: Group Psychology from Hobbes to Laclau

4. The State of Community Opened: Multitude and Multiplicity

5. The Non-Fascist Crowd: Individuation and Infinite Relationality

6. Feeling Together: Affect, Identity and the Politics of the Common

7. On the Impossibility of Making Decisions: Affect, Agency and the Democratic Sublime

Conclusions

Notes

Index

About the author

Jeremy Gilbert is Professor of Cultural and Political Theory at the University of East London and editor of the journal New Formations. He is widely known as a theorist and political commentator, writing for both academic and general audiences. He is the author of Common Ground (Pluto, 2013).Gilbert writes regularly for outlets such New Statesman, Open Democracy and the Guardian.