Document Type
Review Essay
Abstract
[First paragraph]
While the debates over the dis/connections between theory and practice have become essentially metaphysical, it is still useful to distinguish between micro, grassroots struggles and macro, ideological political agendas. In a world in which one of the Left's (old, new and contemporary) main achievements has been to merge the micro and macro in the popular imaginary, this distinction helps one appreciate the myriad of forces affecting social change that are condensed in primarily ideological narratives. A similar perspective is called for when one turns to cultural forms of resistance, which are usually erased by political narratives or mystified beyond hope for those wishing to participate: from the Frankfurt School's somewhat ecstatic pessimism to the Situationist's hyper-paranoia of consumerism to Judith Butler's deconstructive dykes and trannies, the analyses of cultural politics have glossed over the diversity, humor and power of cultural resistance through abstraction and absolutist ideologies.
Repository Citation
Reed, Adam. "On Steven Duncombe's Cultural Resistance Reader (2002)." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 2, no. 4, 2002, pp. 1–3. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol2/iss4/9