Articulated Experiences: Toward a Radical Phenomenology of Contemporary Social Movements

234 Pages·2003·0.82 MB·English

by  Peyman Vahabzadeh

Articulated
Experiences
SUNY series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Lenore Langsdorf, editor
Articulated
Experiences
Toward a Radical Phenomenology of
Contemporary Social Movements
Peyman Vahabzadeh
State University of New York Press
Cover image: Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Il Quarto Stato (1901), oil on canvas,
283 (cid:1) 550 cm. Courtesy of Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Milano, Italia.
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vahabzadeh, Peyman.
Articulated experiences : toward a radical phenomenology of contemporary social
movements / Peyman Vahabzadeh.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in the philosophy of the social sciences)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7914-5619-6 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5620-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Social movements. 2. Phenomenology. I. Title. II. Series.
HN13.V34 2002
303.48'4—dc21 2002021675
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
to the memory of
Ahmad-Ali Vahabzadeh (1965–1988)
the experiences his bright lips articulated

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 What Can New Social Movements Tell
about Post-Modernity? 1
2 Identity and Contemporary Social Movements 7
3 Identity, Experiential Hegemonies, Urstiftung 41
4 Articulated Experiences: The Epochal
(Trans-)Formations of Identities and Social Movements 73
5 Technological Liberalism and the Oppressive
Categorization of “Transgressive” Actors 103
6 An Epochal Theory of Action 141
7 Radical Phenomenology and the Sociology of Possibilities 183
Notes 189
Index 215
vii

Acknowledgments
Although this text bears my name as its author, it found its current appear-
ance through the intellectual support that I received from Ian Angus, Marilyn
Gates, and Jerry Zaslove, to whom I would like to acknowledge my endless
gratitude. As well, some of the formulations in this text surfaced in several
intriguing exchanges I had with Hossein Fazeli and Azadeh Farahmand with
whom I am gratefully immersed in poetry and friendship. Ladan Vahabzadeh
and Mario Di Dio also helped me in various ways and I would like to express
my appreciation to them.
An earlier version of this text was submitted as my dissertation and I
would like to acknowledge my gratitude to the Social Sciences and Hu-
manities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) for the Doctoral Fellow-
ship (1998–2000) that financed the research needed for this work. I would
like to thank the Inter-Library Loans Division at Simon Fraser University
for their admirable efforts in obtaining necessary sources as well as the
Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Simon Fraser University for
various kinds of support they provided for me. I also thank Canadian
Journal of Sociology for permission to use an earlier, shorter version of
Chapter 2.
My thanks also go to my parents for their lifelong belief in me and
for their kind support when time was rather unkind. Finally, this text be-
came possible through the loving support that I received from my wife,
Giti, who generously shouldered my share of responsibilities at home,
especially in taking care of our son, Emile. I could not have possibly
gained the necessary time to complete this text, had it not been for her
silent devotion.
ix