Fusing critical social theory to critical and political phenomenology, Political Poverty presents a substantial contribution to current discussions on democratic inequality, political agency, political exclusion, and the role of experience in critical theorizing. Political Poverty puts forward an experiential account of political agency that can untangle theoretical knots of the discussion on the inequality of political participation. It also delivers a set of thinking tools that enable political theorists to better understand the motivational aspect of political agency, as well as suggestions on how even seemingly hopeless situations can be addressed by determined bottom-up efforts. Readers will come away from the book with a new perspective on political agency and the problems of encouraging democratic participation.
Ch 1: Introduction.- Part I: Theorizing Loss of Freedom.- Ch 2: On Experientalist Theorizing.- Ch 3: Political Passivity and Political Poverty.- Ch 4: On Faith, or How Freedom Becomes Meaningful.- Part II: Loss of Experiential Freedom.- Ch 5: Loss of Trust.- Ch 6: Loss of Expressivity.- Ch 7: Loss of Access to the Public World.- Ch 8: Loss of Hope.- Ch 9: Conclusion.
Joonas S. Martikainen is working as a grant researcher with the Agency as Experience and Capacity: Social Mechanisms, Political Implications project (2025 2029) at the Department of Philosophy, University of Turku, Finland. He was previously a part of the HARMAA: Indirect Philosophy as a Form of Resistance work group at the Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, Finland. His research interests include contemporary continental political theory and critical and political phenomenology, focusing on the broader social conditions of meaningful political agency.
