北外大讲堂/伊莎白讲堂讲座信息

时间：6月24日周二下午15:00-16:30

地点：英语楼111会议室

主办：英语学院澳大利亚研究中心

题目：The Making of the Book of Politics

讲座人：Michael Dutton, Professor of Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London

摘要：

In this paper, I endeavour to explain, almost autobiographically, the background to a book I recently wrote on the concept of the political. It is almost autobiographical because it draws on aspects of my life and work in Chinese area studies, postcolonialism and political studies as it attempts to show the importance of ‘decolonising’ the concept of the political. It draws on, but also draws away from, Western theory by highlighting some elements of the concept of the political best explained and explored by drawing on a wider net of understanding than that offered by mainstream political studies that always trace the question of the political back to origins in Athens and Jerusalem. It argues that politics should not only be more globally understood but should also be treated as an art rather than a political science. The art of the political is neither about institutions of power, nor powerful elite institutions or individuals. It differs from mainstream American political science in that it does not centre on an ontology of self interest and individual rational utility maximisers but, drawing on Daoist understandings of ‘vital energy’ (气）or flows, traces the development of the political in the modern era as being concerned with the channeling and harnessing of affective energy flows. This constitutes the real subject and agency driving the political forward albeit one always guided by the compass points of what both Schmitt and Mao categorised as the friend/enemy distinction. In the book, this tracing of affective energy flows takes the form of an historical narrative that moves from the mountain peaks of south central China to the streets of South Chicago, and onto the cities of London and Paris. In this paper, however, it is the totality of this social machinery operating a little like capital itself that will be employed to explain the nature of modernity. With this reading of the political, I would also like to explore how such an unorthodox approach might lead to a different way of valuing and engaging with area studies knowledge.

在本文中，我试图以近乎自传的方式，阐释近期所著一本关于“政治”概念之书的创作背景。称其近乎自传，是因为书中借鉴了我在中国区域研究、后殖民主义及政治学研究中与个人生活和工作相关的诸多方面，旨在揭示“去殖民化” 政治概念的重要性。该书既借鉴西方理论，又试图跳出其框架 —— 强调若要充分阐释和探索政治概念的某些要素，需借助比主流政治学研究更广泛的认知网络，而主流研究总是将政治问题的根源追溯至雅典与耶路撒冷。本文主张，政治不仅应从更全球化的视角加以理解，还应被视为一门艺术，而非政治科学。政治的艺术既不关乎权力机构，也不涉及强大的精英组织或个体。基于对政治的这一解读，我还希望探讨这种非正统的研究路径如何为评估和运用区域研究知识提供不同的思路。

讲座人简介：

Michael Dutton is Professor of Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences and co-founder of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies in Melbourne. He was one of the founding editors of the journal, Postcolonial Studies and is currently co-editor of the Duke University Press book series Asia/Pacific. Michael’s academic work is interdisciplinary and circles around social theory, and China. His major works include Policing and Punishment in China (Cambridge UP), Streetlife China (Cambridge UP), Policing Chinese Politics (Duke UP), and along with two of his students, Beijing Time (Harvard UP). His latest single authored book again with Duke University Press is called the Book of Politics: China in Theory.

Michael Dutton是伦敦大学金史密斯学院政治学教授，澳大利亚社会科学院院士。他曾是《后殖民研究》（Postcolonial Studies）期刊的创刊编辑之一，目前担任杜克大学出版社 “亚太”（Asia/Pacific）丛书的共同主编。其代表作包括《中国的治安与惩罚》（Policing and Punishment in China，剑桥大学出版社）、《中国街头生活》（Streetlife China，剑桥大学出版社）、《治理中国政治：一部历史》（Policing Chinese Politics: A History，杜克大学出版社），以及与人合著的《北京时间》（Beijing Time，哈佛大学出版社）。他的最新专著《政治之书：理论中的中国》（The Book of Politics: China in Theory）由杜克大学出版社出版。