Activist Humanist

Hardcover, 224 pages

English language

Published Oct. 17, 2023 by Princeton University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-691-25085-4

No rating (1 review)

As climate catastrophes intensify, why do literary and cultural studies scholars so often remain committed to the separation of aesthetic study from the nitty-gritty of political change? In this thought-provoking book, Caroline Levine makes the case for an alternative view, arguing that humanists have the tools to mobilize political power—and the responsibility to use those tools to avert the worst impacts of global warming. Building on the theory developed in her award-winning book, Forms, Levine shows how formalist methods can be used in the fight for climate justice.

Countering scholars in the environmental humanities who embrace only “modest gestures of care”—and who seem to have moved directly to “mourning” our inevitable environmental losses—Levine argues that large-scale, practical environmental activism should be integral to humanists’ work. She identifies three major infrastructural forms crucial to sustaining collective life: routines, pathways, and enclosures. Crisscrossing between art works and public works—from urban transportation to …

As climate catastrophes intensify, why do literary and cultural studies scholars so often remain committed to the separation of aesthetic study from the nitty-gritty of political change? In this thought-provoking book, Caroline Levine makes the case for an alternative view, arguing that humanists have the tools to mobilize political power—and the responsibility to use those tools to avert the worst impacts of global warming. Building on the theory developed in her award-winning book, Forms, Levine shows how formalist methods can be used in the fight for climate justice.

Countering scholars in the environmental humanities who embrace only “modest gestures of care”—and who seem to have moved directly to “mourning” our inevitable environmental losses—Levine argues that large-scale, practical environmental activism should be integral to humanists’ work. She identifies three major infrastructural forms crucial to sustaining collective life: routines, pathways, and enclosures. Crisscrossing between art works and public works—from urban transportation to television series and from food security programs to rhyming couplets—she considers which forms might support stability and predictability in the face of growing precarity. Finally, bridging the gap between academic and practical work, Levine offers a series of questions and exercises intended to guide readers into political action. The Activist Humanist provides an essential handbook for prospective activist-scholars.

3 editions

Jim Brown reviewed Activist Humanist by Caroline Levine

routines, pathways, enclosures, hinges

No rating

Caroline Levine argues that humanists, for too long, have thrown their lot in with indeterminacy and the disruption of systems. We have been anti-instrumentality for too long, and she suggests a set of forms for building infrastructures/spaces that enable thriving: routines (perhaps best understood as habits?), pathways (ways to move people and things), enclosures (abodes). She offers a number of examples of how these forms can be combined in various ways, and she also argues for the importance of "hinges."

A hinge can be temporal, as in a turning point. One example of how this concept is useful - organizing people can be especially effective when they are at a turning point in their lives or in their thinking. But a hinge can also be a linkage between two networks, and it was this concept I found most interesting as I think about federation:

"What does this mean in practice? …

Caroline Levine argues that humanists, for too long, have thrown their lot in with indeterminacy and the disruption of systems. We have been anti-instrumentality for too long, and she suggests a set of forms for building infrastructures/spaces that enable thriving: routines (perhaps best understood as habits?), pathways (ways to move people and things), enclosures (abodes). She offers a number of examples of how these forms can be combined in various ways, and she also argues for the importance of "hinges."

A hinge can be temporal, as in a turning point. One example of how this concept is useful - organizing people can be especially effective when they are at a turning point in their lives or in their thinking. But a hinge can also be a linkage between two networks, and it was this concept I found most interesting as I think about federation:

"What does this mean in practice? It means neither valorizing the small, local action over the massive revolutionary subject, or vice versa, but rather paying attention to the linkages between groups. It means focusing on the form of the hinge. Political theorists have long argued that social movements are most successful at recruiting new members when they tap into existing networks: families, workplaces, friendships, neighborhoods, unions, churches, schools, and colleges. A person might bring her new neighbor to a meeting, for example, and that neighbor will tell her cousin about it, who in turn gets so excited about the experience that she invites her w hole youth group. As the social movement grows, its events and organizations create a vibrant new network of their own, which carries a sense of purpose and belonging that can make it attractive to new members." (135)

"hinged organizations can succeed, even if they are ideologically composite or even incoherent, because of their massive size. There is no need for purity or consistency. In fact, precisely the reverse may be true: movements grow large and powerful in part by linking groups with views that do not necessarily align perfectly." (139)

Subjects

Political science, history, climate change