Table Of ContentSPEED AND MICROPOLITICS
This book provides a theoretical framework for understanding the micropolitics of
speed; a rich, nuanced, and embodied account of life in an accelerating world. What
does it feel like to live in an era of profound social acceleration? What kinds of affects,
perceptions, and identities does an accelerating world produce? The answers to these
questions mean more than simply understanding the psychology of speed; they also
mean understanding issues in contemporary politics as diverse as xenophobia and anti-
immigration policies, patterns of transnational identification and solidarity, social
isolation and alienation, and the ability of new media to coordinate social movements.
W hile drawing extensively on the work of contemporary theorists, Simon Glezos
recognizes that social acceleration is not a purely recent phenomenon. He therefore turns
to thinkers such as Nietzsche, Spinoza, Bergson, and Merleau-Ponty, to ask how they
sought to understand, and respond to, the rapid changes and unsettling temporalities of
their eras, and how their insights can be applied to our own.
A dvancing theoretical understanding and offering a useful way to analytically
conceptualize the nature of time, Speed and Micropolitics will be of interest to students and
scholars studying affect theory, theories of the body, new materialism, phenomenology,
as well as the history of political thought.
Simon Glezos is an assistant professor in the department of political science at the
University of Victoria, in Victoria, BC, Canada. He has a Ph.D. in political theory and
international relations from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, USA.
He is the author of The Politics of Speed: Capitalism, the State, and War in an Accelerating
World , also from Routledge press, and has published articles in CTheory , Contemporary
Political Theory , The Journal of International Political Theory , International Politics , Postmodern
Culture , The European Journal of Political Theory , and P hilosophy in Review .
“Simon Glezos is one of our foremost thinkers on the relationship between
speed and politics. In this book, he argues that social acceleration can be both
destructive and energizing for democracy. Examining embodied experiences
of speed in canonical thought and contemporary neoliberalism, Glezos master-
fully illuminates affective practices that can best address the perils of accelera-
tion in our time.”
Elisabeth Anker, The George Washington University
“Even locked in our houses with nowhere to go we are beset by the need
for speed. Bandwidth for telecommuting, wait estimates for grocery and toilet
paper deliveries, guarantees of vaccines in unprecedented time, all promises
or disappointments of a faster future. In this moment of anxious temporality
Simon Glezos offers us a phenomenology of speed at the scale of the body rather
than the supply chain or the fiber wire. Against the technical questions of fast
and slow, Glezos redirects us to our experience of embodied, radically unset-
tled perceptive interchanges—feelings of speed. For Glezos this is the pressing
philosophical provocation of our contemporary moment. Speed and Micropolitics
is a gorgeous adventure following speed’s trail through the thinking of Spinoza,
Henri Bergson, Wendy Brown and Maurice Merleau-Ponty among many oth-
ers. In each supple reading we find openings for meaningful reflection and
even the possibility of ethical encounters amidst the hemorrhaging resentment
of our accelerating times.”
Jarius Grove, Associate Professor of International Relations,
The University of Hawai’i at Manoa
SPEED AND
MICROPOLITICS
Bodies, Minds, and Perceptions
in an Accelerating World
Simon Glezos
First published 2021
by Routledge
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R outledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
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been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Glezos, Simon, 1981– author.
Title: Speed and micropolitics : bodies, minds, and perceptions in an
accelerating world / Simon Glezos.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020026238 (print) | LCCN 2020026239 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367280635 (hbk) | ISBN 9780367280659 (pbk) |
ISBN 9780367280642 (ebk) | ISBN 9781000195569 (adobe pdf) |
ISBN 9781000195590 (mobi) | ISBN 9781000195620 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Time—Sociological aspects. | Speed—Social aspects. |
Technology—Social aspects. | Political science—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC HM656 .G58 2021 (print) | LCC HM656 (ebook) |
DDC 303.48/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026238
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026239
ISBN: 978-0-367-28063-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-28065-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-28064-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Sarah, who was there right at the beginning,
and Waverly, who was there right at the end.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
I ntroduction: Beyond Fast and Slow 1
PART I
Speed and Affect 17
1 Brown’s Paradox: Speed, Ressentiment, and
Global Politics 19
2 “No One Has Yet Learned How Fast the Body Can Go”:
Spinoza, Speed, and the Body 44
3 Doing Well and Being Glad: Spinoza and the Roots
of Reactionary Politics 79
PART II
Speed and Perception 109
4 Despisers of the Posthuman Body: Speed, Perception, and
Disembodiment 111
5 Embodied Virtuality: Speed, Perception, and New Media
in Bergson 129
viii Contents
6 In the Flesh of an Accelerating World: Merleau-Ponty,
Technology, and the Encounter With the Other 181
7 Towards a Phenomenology of Speed: Merleau-Ponty
and Spatiality in an Accelerating World 215
Index 250
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book was written over a number of years, and the research and ideas
developed in it go back to my time in graduate school. As such, there are a
very large number of people who contributed to its completion, and who have
my deepest appreciation. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge my col-
leagues in the department of political science at the University of Victoria.
They have provided me with support, kindness, and an academic home, and
for that Colin Bennett, Michelle Bonner, Marlea Clark, Claire Cutler, Rita
Dhamoon, Avigail Eisenberg, Wilfred Greaves, Matt James, Jamie Lawson,
Mara Marin, Oliver Schmidtke, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Reeta Trem-
blay, Jim Tully, Amy Verdun, Rob Walker, Scott Watson, Michael Webb, Guo-
guang Wu, Andrew Wender, and Feng Xu have my sincere thanks.
In addition to my departmental colleagues, many others have provided help
in developing this manuscript, whether through comments at conferences, dis-
cussions over drinks, or simple encouragement. As such, I wish to acknowledge
the contributions of Libby Anker, Jeremy Arnold, Marta Bashovski, Emily
Beausoleil, Adam Culver, Francois Debrix, Daniel Deudney, Emily Eaton,
Simon Enoch, Kathy Ferguson, Mark Franke, Jake Greear, Liron Lavi, Alex-
andre Lefebvre, Liam Mitchell, Matthew J. Moore, Benjamin Mueller, Morton
Schoolman, Michael Shapiro, Brent J. Steele, Mina Suk, Heike Schotten, Rob
Watkins, Dylan Weller, David Webster, and Melanie White.
Several individuals provided incalculable aid by reading portions of the
manuscript, and providing me with thoughtful commentary, including Ste-
fanie Fishel , Smita Rahman, Daniel Levine, Nina Hagel, and James Rowe,
and I am thankful for the contributions they’ve made. Arthur Kroker and the
late Marilouise Kroker were both supportive in the development of this manu-
script. I am especially grateful for having had the opportunity to work with,
