On Insurrectionality: Theses on Contemporary Revolts and Resilience

Abstract

This analysis asks are civil uprisings by adaptable popular resistance groups of insurrectionists openly allowed in today's unstable world system? Does power legitimize its rule by constantly sparking revolts only to contain and suppress them in spectacles of control to evince the resilience of established regimes? Such embedded cycles of regimes collapsing, and then reconstructing their rule, illustrate this dynamic of ‘insurrectionality’. Like other ideologies of good works, including ‘accountability’, ‘diversity’, or ‘sustainability’, do the logics of insurrectionality unfold tactics of flexible control to maintain a new globalized regime of resilient power? An emergent logic for maintaining order might mobilize disorder to generate new power and knowledge for renewing order. And, these strategies appear to be implemented by permitting groups of insurrectionists to exist openly and tolerate, to a large degree, the legitimacy of insurrectionism as a civil/political/social freedom, if not, a new type of right.

Keywords:

• insurrection
• insurrectionality
• revolt
• power
• resilience
• governance

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

T. W. Luke

Timothy W. Luke is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences as well as Program Chair of the Government and International Affairs Program, School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. For full biographical information, see his website at: https://www.psci.vt.edu/people/luke-bio.html.