Why Guattari? A Liberation of Cartographies, Ecologies and Politics (Routledge Studies in Human Geography)

This book examines Félix Guattari, the French psychoanalyst, philosopher, and radical activist, renowned for an energetic style of thought that cuts across conceptual, political, and institutional spheres. Increasingly recognised as a key figure in his own right, Guattari’s influence in contemporary social theory and the modern social sciences continues to grow. From the ecosophy of hurricanes to the micropolitics of cinema, the book draws together a series of Guattarian motifs which animate the complexity of one of the twentieth century’s greatest and most enigmatic thinkers. The book examines techniques and modes of thought that contribute to a liberation of thinking and subjectivity. Divided thematically into three parts – ‘cartographies’, ‘ecologies’, and ‘micropolitics’ – each chapter showcases the singular and pragmatic grounds by which Guattari’s signature concepts can be found to be both disruptive to traditional modes of thinking, and generative toward novel forms of ethics, politics and sociality. This interdisciplinary compendium on Guattari’s exciting, experimental, and enigmatic thought will appeal to academics and postgraduates within Social Theory, Human Geography, and Continental Philosophy. This book examines Félix Guattari, the French psychoanalyst, philosopher, and radical activist, renowned for an energetic style of thought that cuts across conceptual, political, and institutional spheres.Increasingly recognised as a key figure in his own right, Guattari's influence in contemporary social theory and the modern social sciences continues to grow. From the ecosophy of hurricanes to the micropolitics of cinema, the book draws together a series of Guattarian motifs which animate the complexity of one of the twentieth century's greatest and most enigmatic thinkers. The book examines techniques and modes of thought that contribute to a liberation of thinking and subjectivity. Divided thematically into three parts – ‘cartographies', ‘ecologies', and ‘micropolitics'– each chapter showcases the singular and pragmatic grounds by which Guattari's signature concepts can be found to be both disruptive to traditional modes of thinking, and generative toward novel forms of ethics, politics and sociality.This interdisciplinary compendium on Guattari's exciting, experimental, and enigmatic thought will appeal to academics and postgraduates within Social Theory, Human Geography, and Continental Philosophy.Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. This book examines Flix Guattari, the French psychoanalyst, philosopher, and radical activist, renowned for an energetic style of thought that cuts across conceptual, political, and institutional spheres. Increasingly recognised as a key figure in his own right, Guattaris influence in contemporary social theory and the modern social sciences continues to grow. From the ecosophy of hurricanes to the micropolitics of cinema, the book draws together a series of Guattarian motifs which animate the complexity of one of the twentieth centurys greatest and most enigmatic thinkers. The book examines techniques and modes of thought that contribute to a liberation of thinking and subjectivity. Divided thematically into three parts cartographies, ecologies, and micropolitics each chapter showcases the singular and pragmatic grounds by which Guattaris signature concepts can be found to be both disruptive to traditional modes of thinking, and generative toward novel forms of ethics, politics and sociality. This interdisciplinary compendium on Guattaris exciting, experimental, and enigmatic thought will appeal to academics and postgraduates within Social Theory, Human Geography, and Continental Philosophy. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. The chapter works through a constellation of fractured and fissured geo-graphical terms that give spatial expression to what Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze famously called 'schizoanalysis' and 'geo-philosophy'. This constellation takes flight from a semiotic impasse bequeathed to us by the combined forces of structuralism and poststructuralism (especially in the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida), which left in its wake nothing but broken, splintered, and malfunctioning signs stretching out before us in all directions. However, while shattered and enigmatic signs may prove all the more captivating and seductive, especially for a 'society of the spectacle', the insatiable desire that their fractal enchainment unleashes should not be mistaken for revolutionary desire. To put it bluntly, the militant injunction Revolt! is indistinguishable from the reactionary injunction Enjoy!. Once enthralled by its alluring chains, there is no escaping the signifier. All the exits are blocked. Through a forced reading of Louis Hjelmslev, however, Guattari discovered a way out of the swamp of signs. Following in Guattari's wake, the chapter argues that a world shatters not by virtue of the weight of great numbers, but by virtue of the ineradicable hairline cracks that run through the middle of things. This book examines Felix Guattari, the French psychoanalyst, philosopher, and radical activist, renowned for an energetic style of thought that cuts across conceptual, political, and institutional spheres. 0Increasingly recognised as a key figure in his own right, Guattari's influence in contemporary social theory and the modern social sciences continues to grow. From the ecosophy of hurricanes to the micropolitics of cinema, the book draws together a series of Guattarian motifs which animate the complexity of one of the twentieth century's greatest and most enigmatic thinkers. The book examines techniques and modes of thought that contribute to a liberation of thinking and subjectivity. Divided thematically into three parts - 'cartographies', 'ecologies', and 'micropolitics' - each chapter showcases the singular and pragmatic grounds by which Guattari's signature concepts can be found to be both disruptive to traditional modes of thinking, and generative toward novel forms of ethics, politics and sociality.0This interdisciplinary compendium on Guattari's exciting, experimental, and enigmatic thought will appeal to academics and postgraduates within Social Theory, Human Geography, and Continental Philosophy This book examines Faelix Guattari, the French psychoanalyst, philosopher, and radical activist, renowned for an energetic style of thought that cuts across conceptual, political, and institutional spheres. Increasingly recognised as a key figure in his own right, Guattari's influence in contemporary social theory and the modern social sciences continues to grow. From the ecosophy of hurricanes to the micropolitics of cinema, the book draws together a series of Guattarian motifs which animate the complexity of one of the twentieth century's greatest and enigmatic thinkers. The book examines techniques and modes of thought that contribute to a liberation of thinking and subjectivity. Divided thematically into three parts - 'cartographies', 'ecologies', and 'micropolitics' - each chapter showcases the singular and pragmatic grounds by which Guattari's signature concepts can be found to be both disruptive to traditional modes of thinking, and generative toward novel forms of ethics, politics and sociality. This interdisciplinary compendium on Guattari's exciting, experimental, and enigmatic thought will appeal to academics and postgraduates within Social Theory, Human Geography, and Continental Philosophy. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of figures 8 List of contributors 9 Acknowledgements 14 Foreword 15 Introduction: for better and for worse 22 Part I Cartographies 34 1 Through a net darkly: spatial expression from glossematics to schizoanalysis 40 2 Mapping the unconscious 55 3 Guattari’s incorporeal materialism: from individuation to aesthetics (and back again) 66 4 Metamodelising the territory: on Teddy Cruz’s diagrammatic urbanism 79 5 Schizoanalytic cartographies 93 6 Refrains of lost time: collapse, refrain, abstract 109 Part II Ecologies 120 7 The (schizo)analysis of value in the ‘Age of Innovation’ 126 8 Ecosophy as an ethical mode of existence 140 9 Pathways to the machinic subject 154 10 Memorial persistence: a hurricane in twelve refrains 169 11 The cosmic flight of the Aerocene Gemini 180 Part III Micropolitics 192 12 Hitchhiking Guattari 198 13 Guattari and the micropolitics of cinema: the desiring-machines of Satoshi Kon 208 14 Reframing politics in art: from representational subjects to aesthetic subjectification 223 15 Communist stratoanalysis 235 16 Transversal geo-politics: the violence of sound 249 Index 263