Around the Day in Eighty Worlds: Politics of the Pluriverse

by Martin Savransky

Overview

In Around the Day in Eighty Worlds Martin Savransky calls for a radical politics of the pluriverse amid the ongoing devastation of the present. Responding to an epoch marked by the history of colonialism and ecological devastation, Savransky draws on the pragmatic pluralism of William James to develop what Savransky calls a “pluralistic realism”—an understanding of the world as simultaneously one and many, ongoing and unfinished, underway and yet to be made. Savransky explores the radical multifariousness of reality by weaving key aspects of James's thought together with divergent worlds and stories: of Magellan's circumnavigation, sorcery in Mozambique, God's felt presence among a group of evangelicals in California, visible spirits in Zambia, and ghosts in the wake of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Throughout, he experiments with these storied worlds to dramatize new ways of approaching the politics of radical difference and the possibility of transforming reality. By exploring and constructing relations between James's pluralism and the ontological turn in anthropology, Savransky offers a new conceptualization of the pluriverse that fosters modes of thinking and living otherwise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478014126
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	06/04/2021
Series:	Thought in the ACT
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Martin Savransky is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London; author of The Adventure of Relevance: An Ethics of Social Inquiry; and coeditor of Speculative Research: The Lure of Possible Futures.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  vii
1. Ongoing and Unfinished  1
2. Runaway Metaphysics  25
3. Trust of a Held-out Hand  49
4. Worldquakes  70
5. Pragmatism in the Wake  91
6. The Insistence of the Pluriverse  113
Notes  133
Bibliography  163
Index  177

Editorial Reviews

With superior scholarship and clarity, Martin Savransky joins recent efforts to displace realist epistemologies and offer alternative analytical practices of the real. This succinct book moves conversations about the so-called ontological turn (and ontological openings) to a thought-ground that philosophically inclined scholars in all disciplines will find attractive to play in.

Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds - Marisol de la Cadena

"A succinct book, captivatingly structured, and thoughtfully written, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds is a generative contribution to the study and practice of pluriversal politics."

European Journal of Social Theory - David McKeown

"Overall, this book offers scholars across disciplines a reconceptualized approach to analyzing social worlds. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."--R. P. Lorenzo "Choice" (6/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"A succinct book, captivatingly structured, and thoughtfully written, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds is a generative contribution to the study and practice of pluriversal politics."--David McKeown "European Journal of Social Theory" (10/1/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Martin Savransky's generative and intense book powerfully relays the living, burning demand at the heart of William James's pragmatism--that we learn to feel and think with a reality in the making of which we participate, whether we will it or not. Experimenting with this risky but transformative demand, Savransky reactivates a William James, calling contemporary thinkers to hold out a trusting hand to the manifold, adventurous commitments of today's activism."--Isabelle Stengers, author of "In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism"

"With superior scholarship and clarity, Martin Savransky joins recent efforts to displace realist epistemologies and offer alternative analytical practices of the real. This succinct book moves conversations about the so-called ontological turn (and ontological openings) to a thought-ground that philosophically inclined scholars in all disciplines will find attractive to play in."--Marisol de la Cadena, author of "Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds"

From the Publisher

"Overall, this book offers scholars across disciplines a reconceptualized approach to analyzing social worlds. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."

Choice - R. P. Lorenzo

Martin Savransky's generative and intense book powerfully relays the living, burning demand at the heart of William James's pragmatism—that we learn to feel and think with a reality in the making of which we participate, whether we will it or not. Experimenting with this risky but transformative demand, Savransky reactivates a William James, calling contemporary thinkers to hold out a trusting hand to the manifold, adventurous commitments of today's activism.

In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism - Isabelle Stengers