Azmanova, Curriculum Vitae

1 March 2020

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Albena Azmanova

Department of Politics and International Relations,

University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies

Contact details:

University of Kent,

Boulevard Louis Schmidt 2a, 1040 Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32 2 641 1721

Web: www.bsis.be

Email: A.Azmanova@kent.ac.uk

http://www.kent.ac.uk/brussels/BSIS/staff/azmanova.html

I. Academic expertise and appointments – p.2

II. Education – p.3

III. Research affiliations and board memberships -- p.3

IV. Invited public lectures (selection) – p.4

V. Policy advisory work (selection) – p.5

VI. Civic engagement – p.5

VII. Languages – p.6

VIII. Publications (selections) – p.6

IX. Overview of research – p.10

Azmanova, CV p. 2/12

I. ACADEMIC EXPERTISE AND APPOINTMENTS:

ACADEMIC EXPERTISE:

Main fields: political and social theory; political philosophy; comparative politics.

Research themes: judgment and justice; critical theory; critique of the political economy of

capitalism; the historical evolution of democracy and liberalism.

MAIN APPOINTMENT:

Reader in Political and Social Theory (tenured full-time post, since 1 Sept 2005)

Teaching and supervision (all lecture courses are at postgraduate level):

▪ “State, Market and Society” – a lecture course combining political and social theory,

history of ideas, and the historical sociology of European modernity.

▪ “International Political Economy” – a lecture course surveying critiques of global

capitalism and its effect on liberal democracies.

▪ “Political Communication” – a lecture course on persuasive communication (rhetoric,

theories of deliberation and justification)

▪ Previously taught modules: “Politics in the New Economy”, “Dilemmas of

Governance in the European Union”, ”Political Theory in the Post-national

Constellation”, “Political Strategy”.

▪ Supervision of Ph.D. students: 5 completed; currently supervising 4;

▪ Supervision of M.A. coursework: on average 20 works per year

Academic Administration:

▪ Director, MA Programme in International Political Economy: 2005- current;

▪ Director, MA Programme in Political Strategy and Communication: I designed and

implemented the programme in 2006; convening it since then.

▪ Director, MA Programme in European Public Policy: I established the programme in

2006; convened it through 2008.

▪ Director of Postgraduate Research, Director of Graduate Studies: posts held in

rotation from 2005 to 2018;

▪ Editor, Journal of the Brussels School of International Studies (2018- current)

External examiner, City, University of London, MA International Politics and Human

Rights, MA Global Political Economy (1 Sept 2019 – current)

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS:

Vesalius College, Brussels: Sept. 2002-June 2005

(Assistant Professor in Politics)

Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po.): Sept. 1998 - 2002

(Maître de Conférences (Assistant Professor) in Politics; Lecture course on

contemporary debates in social and political theory).

Ecole des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC): Spring 1998

(Adjunct Professor, lecture course on theories of justice)

The New School for Social Research, New York: 1995 – 1997

(Assistant Professor; lecture courses ‘Reason and Revolution’ and ‘Introduction to

Political Theory”)

Azmanova, CV p. 3/12

II. EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Political Science, The New School for Social Research, New York (2001)

Ph.D. Thesis: ”Critical Consensus: on the Political Epistemology of Justice Debates in

Complex Democracies”; Dissertation committee: Nancy Fraser (principal advisor), Andrew

Arato and Ira Katznelson; the dissertation received the Hannah Arendt Memorial Award in

Politics.

Certificat d’Etudes Européennes, Institut des Hautes Etudes Européennes,

Université Robert Schuman, Strasbourg (1993).

M.A. Political Science, Sofia University, Bulgaria (1992)

M.A Thesis: “Forms of Sovereignty in the European Union”

III. RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS AND BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS

Bauman Institute for Critical Sociology, University of Leeds (Jan. 2020 --current)

U.C. Berkeley (Visiting professor, Institute for European Studies, Spring 2015)

Harvard University (Visiting professor, Center for European Studies, Spring 2014)

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne (Visiting fellow, Spring 2009)

Hoover Chair for Social and Economic Ethics, Catholic University of Louvain (Research

Fellow: Sept. 2002- June 2003; Associate Fellow: Sept 2003-June 2004)

The Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Senior Associate Researcher 2011-

current)

BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

Member of the Editorial Board of the journal Philosophy and Social Criticism (2016-current);

Associate editor, Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory

(2015-current).

Associate Editor, Review of Evolutionary Political Economy (2020-current).

Member of the Advisory Board of Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization (2018-current);

Member of the Executive Board of "Socialism, Capitalism, Democracy" Research Committee,

International Political Science Association (January 2019 - current)

Advisory board member, research network Differentiation, Dominance and Democracy

(EU3D), ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo (2017-2023).

PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH NETWORKS:

2018-current: project “EU Differentiation, Dominance and Democracy”, funded by the

EU Horizon 2020 programme (funding period 1.2.2019 – 31.1.2023); scientific coordinator

John Erik Fossum, ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo.

2017-- current: member of the Radical Critical Theory Circle

(http://criticaltheoryplus.com/)

Azmanova, CV p. 4/12

2007-- current: a member of the critical theory network (annual colloquia are held in

May in Prague); honorary directors: Jean L. Cohen, Peter Dews, Axel Honneth, and Frank

Michelman.

2010-current: a member of the Istanbul Seminars network (an annual colloquium on

democracy and multiculturalism in Istanbul organised by Reset Dialogues on Civilisations:

http://www.resetdoc.org/stories/index/00000000157)

2010-2012: Member of an international research team on a project “Reason and

Judgment”, headed by Alessandro Ferrara (University of Rome).

2012-2013; Member of a research group on the global impact of local politics,

organized by the French Development Agency and University of Chicago.

2007-2010: Member of an international research team on a project “Varieties of

Capitalism and Varieties of Social Justice”, headed by Professor Philippe Schmitter (European

University Institute).

2012-2015: Member of a research group on advances in democratic theory convened

by David Chandler and Chantal Mouffe at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University

of Westminster.

PEER-REVIEWS AND PROJECT ASSESSMENT:

Peer-reviewing articles for the following journals: American Political Science Review;

European Journal of Political Theory; Policy and Politics; Millennium, European Law

Journal; International Political Sociology; European Journal of Social Theory; New Political

Economy; Global Society; Ethical Perspectives; Gender, Work and Organisation, and

Constellations.

Peer-reviewing book manuscripts for Columbia University Press, Bristol University Press,

Routledge and Springer.

Project assessment: for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2012

and the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (research foundation for the humanities and social

sciences, Sweden), 2017.

IV. INVITED PUBLIC LECTURES

(selections of the past 5 years; excludes conference participation)

2020:

12 June. Louvain-la-Neuve. A keynote address at the conference “Marx and Europe” (‘The

European Green Deal: class struggle or counter-hegemony?’).

5-8 March. Delphi. Delphi Economic Forum.

A series of book presentations for Capitalism on Edge: 21 & 22 Apr. New York; 24 Apr.

Harvard; 5 May Paris, 26 May Oxford.

2019:

29 November, Barcelona. Keynote address at the 16th Political

Philosophy Conference, University of Barcelona

2-3 November, London, The Battle of Ideas festival (three panels):

https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/speaker/albena-azmanova/

Azmanova, CV p. 5/12

14 October. London, keynote address at the European Greens/EFA convention.

24 May, Venice (Ca Foscari University): “Prosperity, Equality, and Nature: The Trilemma of

Democratic Capitalism”, Reset DOC Seminars 2019.

11 March. Frankfurt (Goethe University): ‘The Social Question in the 21st century’.

7 March. The Megaron Concert Hall, Athens: “Populism and the Transformation of

Capitalism” in the cycle of public lectures: "Theory in Megaron: philosophy, critique,

history."

2018:

27-29 April. Vaduz, Liechtenstein: a guest speaker at a colloquium on the state of European

democracies convened by Prince Michael von Liechtenstein.

2017:

17 July. Mexico City, Mexico: a guest talk on populism hosted by the Philosophy department

of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.

10 June. Venice, Italy: intervention at the conference “The Populist Upsurge and the Decline

of Diversity Capital,” Reset DOC Seminars 2017.

16-17 March. London, U.K: a keynote speaker at the international graduate conference, The

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

27 January. Essen, Germany: intervention at the symposium on the refugee crisis in Europe

organised by the Universität Duisburg-Essen, Institut für Philosophie.

2016:

4 November. London, U.K. British Academy symposium on the future of the EU after Brexit

(intervention “The Crisis of the Crisis of Europe”).

5-6 February. Singapore: NUS 2016 Political Theory Symposium, lecture: “On Bureaucratic

Theocracy and the Right to Politics”.

V. POLICY ADVISORY WORK

Ongoing: ad-hoc consultations for the European Parliament and the European Commission on

issues of EU enlargement and rule of law.

Previously: work for Transparency International (spring 2008), Regional Arab Population

Forum (2004); United Nations, New York (1994) and the Council of Europe (1992 – 1993).

VI. CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

1987-1991:

▪ Member of the first dissident human rights committee in Bulgaria (“Committee for the

Protection of Rousse,” predecessor of Ecoglasnost)

▪ Co-organiser of the student strikes at Sofia University that triggered the popular protest

against the communist regime in Bulgaria; presented the goals of the revolution at the

Council of Europe on behalf of the students.

May 2010: Co-founder of the Forum of Concerned Citizens of Europe www.forum-

europa.org (with Ash Amin, Les Back , Laura Balbo, Iain Chambers, Nefise Özkal Lorentzen,

Bashkim Shehu, Pep Subirós, Teun A. van Dijk and Ruth Wodak. Website:

http://www.livingindiversity.org

Azmanova, CV p. 6/12

February 2012: Co-organizer of the petition “Saving the Greek People From Their

Saviours”, with Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Costas Douzinas, Jean-Luc

Nancy, Jacques Rancière, and others. My contribution to the drafting of the petition

concerned issues of political responsibility:

http://www.editions-lignes.com/Save-The-Greek-People.html

December 2012: I assured the successful defence of a case at the European Court of Justice

against the European Schools’ practice of deciding on a student’s language section according

to the parents’ nationality.

January – June 2016: I was one of the first members of the Academics for Peace group

established in January 2016 to protest the Turkish government oppression of dissidents; I

have signed numerous petitions related to this protest, among which “Turkey’s Attack on

Teachers”, published in the New York Review of Books, 21 April 2016:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/04/21/turkeys-attack-on-teachers/

A video messages by Naom Chomsky, Steven Pinker and me were aired at a conference on

academic freedoms in Turkey at the University of Munich on 8-9 Dec. 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQr-Zu8uO8M&t=6s

2017:

Initiated, together with Barbara Spinelli, member of the European Parliament, an Open Letter

to the EU Presidents Juncker and Tusk to protest violations of the rule of law by the Spanish

government in its handling of the October 2017 Referendum in Catalonia. The letter, signed

by some 200 scholars and members of the European Parliament was submitted to Mr Juncker

and Mr Tusk via the European Parliament on 3 November 2017. The letter is hosted at:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/barbara-spinelli-et-al/upholding-rule-of-

law-in-european-union

VII. LANGUAGES:

English (fluent, dominant language); French (working knowledge); Bulgarian (fluent, mother

tongue); Russian (fair understanding); Dutch (some understanding)

VIII/ PUBLICATIONS

A/ MAIN ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

An overview of my research, referenced to the relevant publications, follows the list.

BOOKS:

2020a. CAPITALISM ON EDGE: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change

Without Crisis or Utopia (New York: Columbia University Press).

2012a. The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment (New York:

Columbia University Press).

with Mihaela Mihai (eds.) 2015. Reclaiming Democracy: Judgment, Responsibility and the

Right to Politics (London and New York: Routledge).

with Marc Pallemaerts, (eds.) 2006. The EU and Sustainable Development: Internal and

External Dimensions. (Brussels: Politea and VUB University Press).

with James Chamberlain (eds.), 2020. Capitalism, Democracy, Socialism: Critical Debates

(under review with Polity).

Azmanova, CV p. 7/12

BOOK CHAPTERS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES:

2020b. “The Costs of the Democratic Turn in Political Theory”, in Theory as Ideology edited

by Benjamin Martill and Sebastian Schindler (Routledge, in production)

2019f. with Azar Dakwar. “The Inverted Post-national Constellation: Identitarian populism in

context”, European Law Journal 25/5: 494– 501.

2019e. “Whose development? What hegemony? Tackling the structural dynamics of global

social injustice.”, Ethics & Global Politics, 12/4: 32-39.

2019c/d. “Marx’ and “Late Capitalism’, entries in The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon, edited

by Amy Allen and Eduardo Mendieta (Cambridge University Press).

2019b. “The clash that never was: debating Islam, the myth of civilisations and the realities of

democracy” (a review of Benhabib, S. and Kaul, V. (eds.) Towards New Democratic

Imaginaries – Istanbul Seminars on Islam, Culture and Politics. Springer: 2017), in

Philosophy and Social Criticism (forthcoming).

2019a. “The Emancipation Paradox: Populism, Democracy, and the Soul of the Left”, in

Philosophy and Social Criticism, Volume: 45 issue: 9-10: 1186-1207 (October 2019),

special issue on populism, edited by Axel Mueller, with Jan-Werner Mueller, Yasha

Mounk, Pippa Norris, and others.

2018a. “The Populist Catharsis: On the Revival of the Political,” in Philosophy and Social

Criticism 44/4: 399–411.

2018b. “Relational, structural and systemic forms of power: the ‘right to justification’

confronting three types of domination,” Journal of Political Power 11/1: 68-78

2018c. “The European Left’s Machiavellian moment: notes on Costas Douzinas’ Syriza in

Power,” openDemocracy, 27 April.

2018d. “Emancipation, Progress, Critique: Debating Amy Allen’s The End of Progress”,

Contemporary Political Theory17/4: pp 511–541. (as editor).

2017. “The Crisis of ‘the Crisis of Europe’,” in Ash Amin and Philip Lewis (eds.) European

Union and Disunion (London: British Academy), pp. 41-46.

2016d. “Democracy Against Social Reform: the Arab ‘Spring’ Faces its Demons”, in What is

Enlightenment? Continuity or Rupture in the Wake if the Arab Uprisings, edited by

Mohammed Cherkaoui (London: Lexington Books), pp. 239-254.

2016b. “Empowerment as Surrender: how women lost the battle for emancipation as they

won equality and inclusion,’’ in Social Research 83/3 (Fall 2016): 749-776, special

issue on failure, ed. by Arjun Appadurai.

2016a. “The Right to Politics and Republican Non-domination”, Philosophy and Social

Criticism, (May-June) 42/4: 465-475.

2014. “Crisis? Capitalism is Doing Very Well. How is Critical Theory?,” Constellations: An

International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 21/3 (2014): 351-365

2013c. “Political Judgment for an Agonistic Democracy”, in No Foundations: An

Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice (University of Helsinki), issue 10

(June): a special issue “Judging Democracy, Democratic Judgment”

2013b. “The ‘Crisis of Capitalism’ and the State – More Powerful, Less Responsible,

Invariably Legitimate”, in Semantics of Statebuilding: Language, Meanings and

Sovereignty, edited by Nicolas Lemay-Hébert, Nicholas Onuf, Vojin Rakić, Petar

Bojanić (Routledge), pp. 150-162.

Azmanova, CV p. 8/12

2013a. “The Crisis of Europe: Democratic Deficit and Eroding Sovereignty – Not Guilty,”

Law and Critique 24/1: 23-38.

2012b. “Social Justice and Varieties of Capitalism: An Immanent Critique”, New Political

Economy 17/ 4: 445-463.

Translated to German as “Soziale Gerechtigkeit und die verschiedenen Varianten des

Kapitalismus”, in A. Honneth, L. Herzog, Der Wert des Marktes, Berlin: Suhrkamp

Verlag, 2014.

(This is a collection of key texts on capitalism, including works by G.W.F. Hegel, K.

Marx, E. Durkheim, J.S. Mill, A. Sen, A. Hirschman and others)

2012c. “De-gendering social justice in the 21st century: An immanent critique of neoliberal

capitalism”, European Journal of Social Theory 15/2 (May): 143-156.

2011a. “Against the Politics of Fear: On Deliberation, Inclusion, and the Political Economy of

Trust”, Philosophy and Social Criticism 37/2: 401-412. An Italian translation of this

article is published in Queste Istituzioni, March 2011.

2011b. “After the Left-Right (Dis)continuum: Globalization and the Remaking of Europe’s

Ideological Geography”, International Political Sociology 5/4: 384-407.

2011c. “Social Harm, Political Judgment, and the Pragmatics of Universal Justification”, in

Philosophical Dimensions of Human Rights: Some Contemporary Views, edited by

Claudio Corradetti (Springer); pp. 107-123.

2010a. “Capitalism Reorganized: Social Justice after Neo-liberalism”, Constellations: An

International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 17/3: 390-406.

2010b. “Democracy and the ‘Better Argument’ Mystique”, The Good Society (a PEGS

journal), vol.19, no.1 (2010) – a symposium on James Fishkin’s When the People

Speak, with contributions also by Jane Mansbridge, Lynn Sanders, Sanford Levinson,

and a reply by James Fishkin.

2009a. “1989 and the European Social Model: Transition Without Emancipation?”,

Philosophy and Social Criticism 35/ 9: 1-19.

2009b. “1989 and the Accidental Death of the European Social Model”, Policy and Politics

37/4: 611-615 (Debates section).

2006. “Democratization, Economic Transition and Sustainable Development: A Perspective

from the EU’s New Member States”, in Azmanova and Pallemaerts (eds.) 2006.

2005. ‘Le Potentiel Démocratique de la Constitution Européenne (ou Les Démocrates doivent-

ils voter pour?)’, in Les Européennes en 2005, edited by Dominique Reynie (Paris :

Odile Jacob), pp. 137-149.

2004a. ‘The Mobilisation of the European Left in the Early 21st Century’, European Journal

of Sociology 45/2: 273-306.

2004b. ‘Europe’s Novel Political Cultures in the Early Twenty-first Century’, Contemporary

Politics 10/2 (June): 111-125.

2004c. ‘Curbing the Deficit: Democracy After the European Constitution’, Imprints 8/1:7-49.

FIRST ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS:

1992 "Dictatorships of Freedom", Praxis International, vol. 12, issue 2, (July 1992), pp. 145-

157.

1991. "The Legitimacy of Communism?", Sociological Problems (Journal of the Bulgarian

Academy of Sciences), 4 /1991.

Azmanova, CV p. 9/12

B/ IN THE MASS MEDIA (selection)

“At the edge: On generalized precarity and subversive pragmatism”, Interview for the radio

programme This Is Hell

“Capitalism on Edge”: Interview with Douglas Lain for Zero Squared, 21 Jan.2020.

“The big Green New Deal and its little red social question”, Social Europe, 30 October 2019.

“Agent Sabina: On the abjection of Julia Kristeva,” Eurozine, 20 April 2018.

“The Abuse of the Rule of Law in the EU, “ Social Europe, 24th October 2017.

with Barbara Spinelli, “Upholding the Rule of Law in the European Union”, openDemocracy,

4 Nov.2017 (an Open Letter to EU Presidents Juncker and Tusk).

“Taking the Spanish Government before the law”, openDemocracy, 12 Oct 2017.

“There is no Refugee Crisis in Europe”, openDemocracy, 21 March 2016.

“Are we Charlie?”, Berkeley Blog (16 Jan. 2015)

“Misframing the Greek protest”, Berkeley Blog (18 Feb.2015)

“Eurosceptive parties will save Europe’s soul, despite themselves, openDemocracy, 29 May

2014.

“ You want federal Europe? why not start with a European social stability mechanism?”,

openDemocracy, 21 Sept 2011.

“On social destitution, misdirected protest and the missing crisis of capitalism”,

openDemocracy, 9 July 2012.

Commentary (with Drucilla Cornell and Zehra Arat) on the autocratic turn in Turkish politics for

the Kurdish magazine Politika, 29 April 2016:

http://www.yeniozgurpolitika.org/index.php?rupel=nuce&id=54680

An Open Letter in protest of the oppression of dissidents in Turkey (signed by over 100

academics), published in the New York Review of Books, 21 April 2016.

Interview for the ‘Against the Grain’ programme of the KPFA radio (Berkeley, California) on 25

Feb. 2015. KPFA is the oldest listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States (launched

in 1949).

A commentary on the crisis of the European Union for the BBC World Service, 20 October

2012.

A series of commentaries in The Financial Times:

“Turkey has violated NATO founding Treaty”, 16 Aug. 2016.

“Should we profit from US security without accepting its spying?”, 4 Nov. 2013

“Safe even in a ‘society of devils’,” 26 Sept. 2011;

“Clock ticking as US and Europe seek consensus on values,” 21 April 2008

“France's new policy vocabulary in the century of globalisation,” 22 Nov. 2007

“Sarkozy does small business no favours, 29 June 2007”

“Explaining a shift to the centre-right in Europe - and the US,” 22 March 2007.

A video interview “On the Politics of Fear”: http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000021600

Josep Ramoneda quoted my work on economic xenophobia in his “La Hegemonía

Conservadora”, El País, 7 March 2010.

Azmanova, CV p. 10/12

I was one of the three authors of the Manifesto « Against the Politics of Fear », which was

widely published in the mass media. We were nominated for the EU Journalists

Award "For Diversity - Against Discrimination" of the European Commission for

2010.

“Europe's angry conservatives turn nasty against liberalism”, The European Voice 13 April 2006

Contribution to “30 Idées Pour Réveiller la Gauche”, special edition of the French journal

Libération, 10 Nov. 2005.

A biographical article “She Goes Against the Stream”, and a review of my theory of new

political conflicts by Lena Skogberg in the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet, 13 February

2005, pp10-11.

Participation in “Five Europeans in New York” (a biographical documentary on 5 young

Europeans living in New York) by Jeroen van der Drift; a Dutch Angle Films production, in

cooperation with Deutsche Film –und Fernsehakademie Belin, 1996.

IX. OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH

(references are made to the works listed above)

My intellectual objective has been to elaborate a formula of critique for politically valiant social analysis, suitable for the conceptualization of radical social change. The evolution of this project is articulated below, referenced to the relevant publications.

My efforts at politically engaged philosophical reflection began with my involvement with the dissident movements in my native Bulgaria in the late 1980s. I observed a continuity between the nascent post-communist democracy and the old regime, questioning prevalent at the time optimistic prognoses for the future of liberal democracy in Eastern Europe (Azmanova 1992). This trajectory of research was continued in Azmanova 2001, 2006, 2009a, 2009b.

My doctoral work at the New School for Social Research in New York focused on theories of justice and judgment, as I explored the capacity of public deliberations on social justice to have not only validating and consensus-building, but also a critical, emancipatory force. I formulated the dilemma of normative political theory in terms of what I called the ‘judgment paradox’ – the more we weaken our normative criteria, the more we enhance judgment’s political realism at the expense of its critical power; however, the higher we set the normative standards, the more we lose our grip on political reality— again at the expense of judgment’s critical power (2012a: 3-4). To solve this paradox, I elaborated a model of critical judgment based on a pragmatist political epistemology, by drawing on Aristotle’s notion of phronesis and Kant’s notion of reflective judgment. I articulate the conditions under which public deliberations on justice generate what I describe as a critical consensus – a shared understanding of the common social roots of seemingly irreconcilable positions, which allows citizens to maintain a critical stance on the norms they embrace as binding, as well as engage successfully in transformative social practices (ibid: Ch7-9). Aspects of this model of agonistic, emancipatory deliberations are developed in 2011a, 2011c, and 2013c.

Another trajectory of my research has been dedicated to bringing the critique of political economy (back) into political and social theory. I observe the disengagement of critical theory from the critique of the structural dynamics of contemporary capitalism (2014, 2019e, 2019c) and propose to shift our thinking on social justice beyond issues of inequality and exclusion (2014). I recast the model of ‘immanent critique’ developed within the Frankfurt School of critical theory away from the communicative turn, in order to ground

Azmanova, CV p. 11/12

social criticism more firmly in the critique of political economy. This allows me to focus on the key systemic dynamics and structural contradictions of contemporary capitalism (2012b). At the center of my theoretical framework is an articulation of three types of social domination: systemic (rooted in the constitutive dynamics of the social system), structural (rooted in the structuring institutions), and relational (rooted in power asymmetries); these are also three trajectories along which intellectual critique and social criticism are to pursue emancipation (2020, 2018b, 2016b). Emancipatory practice is to target these three types of domination, while radical, revolutionary practice is to target specifically systemic domination. Thus, I shift the critique of capitalism from issues of distributive injustice and property relations (which are matters of, respectively, relational and structural domination) to the competitive production of profit – capitalism’s constitutive dynamic which engenders systemic domination. Drawing on this theoretical model, I also spell out a methodology of analysis for critical social theory (2020, Ch2).

This recasting of the analysis of social domination allows me to argue that social and political theory’s contribution to progressive politics is often undermined by what I call the ‘emancipation paradox’: success in fighting one form of domination often comes at the price of aggravating another form of domination (2019b). I have displayed the way the emancipation paradox plays out in feminist struggles for emancipation in analyses that urge the degendering of social justice, and advance a formula of socially embedded autonomy that unites work, care, and leisure (2012c, 2016b). My account of the enabling conditions for progressive politics leads me to introduce the notion of meta-rights and elaborate the conception of the ‘right to politics’ -- the right of having one’s grievance of injustice (be it suffered by us or by others) to be considered a relevant social concern and a valid object of policy making (2016a).

I have deployed the above-described theoretical framework in the analysis of contemporary capitalist democracy as an institutionalised socio-political order. I identify the spreading economic and social uncertainty (precarity) to be at the heart of the social question of our times (2004a, 2012b), fueling economic xenophobia (2011a) and generating populism as a matter of political mis-articulation of a valid social grievance (2018c) which is to be countered by means of a set of policies that institute what I name a ‘political economy of trust’ (2011a, 2017, 2020).

In contrast to analyses that attribute the rise of populism to a democratic deficit, economic crisis, or eroding national sovereignty, I trace the roots of the anti-establishment revolts to what I conceptualise as ‘socially irresponsible rule’, in contrast to responsive, accountable, and effective rule (2013a). Moreover, I propose to see populist parties and movements not as temporary mobilisations at the extremes of the left-right political spectrum, but as a symptom of a stable reconfiguration of the ideological landscape of liberal democracies, in which the left-right divide is being replaced by what I name opportunity-risk divide (Azmanova 2004a, 2004b, 2011b). This reconfiguration, in turn, is part of the thorough transformation of neoliberal capitalism into a novel form of democratic capitalism (2010a, 2013b), what I have discussed most recently as ‘precarity capitalism’ (2020).

The various trajectories of my research into the political economy and the ideological dynamics of contemporary capitalism converge into the comprehensive analysis I offer in my new book Capitalism on Edge (2020), which lays out a path for radical social change without reliance on crisis, revolution, or utopia. In this work, I construct a methodology for critical social analysis, which is then operationalised in an analysis of the transformation of capitalism over the past two centuries. This work elaborates a conception

Azmanova, CV p. 12/12

of radical social change as subversion of systemic dynamics, rather than overthrowing or resisting these dynamics.