Bearing Society in Mind

Samuel A. Chambers teaches political theory and cultural politics at Johns Hopkins University where he is an associate professor of political science. He is co-editor of the journal ‘Contemporary Political Theory’ and general series coeditor of the Routledge series, ‘Innovators in Political Theory’. His work is broadly interdisciplinary, ranging from philosophy of language, to feminist and queer theory, to critical television studies. He has published four books, ‘The Lessons of Rancière’ (2013), ‘Untimely Politics’ (2003); ‘Judith Butler and Political Theory’ (2008); and ‘The Queer Politics of Television’ (2009).samuelachambers.com

• Acknowledgements/Introduction: Bearing Society in Mind/Intermezzo/ 1 Subjectivation, The Social, and a (Missing) Account of the Social Formation/ 2 Society, Social Formations: Reading the 1857 Introduction/ 3 Thought and the Real: Conceptualizing the Social Formation/ 4 The Temporality of Social Formations/ 5 Interests, Groups, and the Social Formation/ Coda/ Works Cited/Index

In this astute and engaging new book Samuel Chambers shows how radical theory ‘after’ Marx can and must ‘return’ to Marx if it is to realize its critical potential. Chambers’ goal is not to reject movements such as post-structuralism but to retrieve and recreate for them the concept of ‘social formation’ through which we can see better the shape of the present and the kinds of action that open on to what comes next. The book sets out with clarity and conviction the challenge to which a serious contemporary political theory must rise.