Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘War Machine’ as a Critique of Hegel’s Political Philosophy

AbstractThis paper elaborates Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘war machine’ in relation to key theses in Hegel’s political philosophy, with the aim of showing how it illuminates the conditions under which politics and political institutions as Hegel understands them both emerge and are compromised. After first introducing the idea of the war machine and its appropriation by discussing it in relation to Carl Schmitt’s theory of partisan warfare, it examines both the war machine and Hegel’s theory of the State by way of a focus on Hegel’s discussions of drive (Trieb) and semblance (Schein). Regarding the first, the paper explores how both Hegel and Deleuze and Guattari conceive of social structure in terms of a structure of drives even while they differ in their understandings of the drives in relation to desire and subjectivity. Regarding the second, the paper explores how moments of semblance identified by Hegel as he develops his system of Right reveal points where the war machine can emerge from within State structures. The paper argues that the war machine concept challenges understandings of politics built on friend/enemy antagonisms and the use of external conflict to secure internal unity, the former being Schmitt’s explicit political project and the second being the place at which Hegel’s project ultimately finds itself when it fails to secure the rational structure of Ethical Life.</jats:p

Aesthetics of Autonomy: Ricoeur and Sartre on Emancipation, Authenticity, and Selfhood

A book review of Farhang Erfani, Aesthetics of Autonomy: Ricoeur and Sartre on Emancipation, Authenticity, and Selfhood (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011)

Field Evaluation of Highly Insulating Windows in the Lab Homes: Winter Experiment

This field evaluation of highly insulating windows was undertaken in a matched pair of 'Lab Homes' located on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus during the 2012 winter heating season. Improving the insulation and solar heat gain characteristics of a home's windows has the potential to significantly improve the home's building envelope and overall thermal performance by reducing heat loss (in the winter), and cooling loss and solar heat gain (in the summer) through the windows. A high quality installation and/or window retrofit will also minimize or reduce air leakage through the window cavity and thus also contribute to reduced heat loss in the winter and cooling loss in the summer. These improvements all contribute to decreasing overall annual home energy use. Occupant comfort (non-quantifiable) can also be increased by minimizing or eliminating the cold 'draft' (temperature) many residents experience at or near window surfaces that are at a noticeably lower temperature than the room air temperature. Lastly, although not measured in this experiment, highly insulating windows (triple-pane in this experiment) also have the potential to significantly reduce the noise transmittance through windows compared to standard double-pane windows. The metered data taken in the Lab Homes and data analysis presented here represent 70 days of data taken during the 2012 heating season. As such, the savings from highly insulating windows in the experimental home (Lab Home B) compared to the standard double-pane clear glass windows in the baseline home (Lab Home A) are only a portion of the energy savings expected from a year-long experiment that would include a cooling season. The cooling season experiment will take place in the homes in the summer of 2012, and results of that experiment will be reported in a subsequent report available to all stakeholders

Field Evaluation of Highly Insulating Windows in the Lab Homes: Winter Experiment

This field evaluation of highly insulating windows was undertaken in a matched pair of 'Lab Homes' located on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus during the 2012 winter heating season. Improving the insulation and solar heat gain characteristics of a home's windows has the potential to significantly improve the home's building envelope and overall thermal performance by reducing heat loss (in the winter), and cooling loss and solar heat gain (in the summer) through the windows. A high quality installation and/or window retrofit will also minimize or reduce air leakage through the window cavity and thus also contribute to reduced heat loss in the winter and cooling loss in the summer. These improvements all contribute to decreasing overall annual home energy use. Occupant comfort (non-quantifiable) can also be increased by minimizing or eliminating the cold 'draft' (temperature) many residents experience at or near window surfaces that are at a noticeably lower temperature than the room air temperature. Lastly, although not measured in this experiment, highly insulating windows (triple-pane in this experiment) also have the potential to significantly reduce the noise transmittance through windows compared to standard double-pane windows. The metered data taken in the Lab Homes and data analysis presented here represent 70 days of data taken during the 2012 heating season. As such, the savings from highly insulating windows in the experimental home (Lab Home B) compared to the standard double-pane clear glass windows in the baseline home (Lab Home A) are only a portion of the energy savings expected from a year-long experiment that would include a cooling season. The cooling season experiment will take place in the homes in the summer of 2012, and results of that experiment will be reported in a subsequent report available to all stakeholders

Making Different Differences: Representation and Rights in Sexuality Activism

This paper argues that current iterations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights are limited by an overreliance on particular representations of sexuality, in which homosexuality is defined negatively through a binary of homosexual/heterosexual. The limits of these representations are explored in order to unpick the possibility of engaging in a form of sexuality politics that is grounded in difference rather than in sameness or opposition. The paper seeks to respond to Braidotti’s call for an “affirmative politics” that is open to forms of creative, future-oriented action and that might serve to answer some of the more common criticisms of current LGBTI rights activism