In Remaindered Life, Neferti X. M. Tadiar examines modes of living that go beyond the binary of ‘productive’ and ‘disposable’ life propagated under global capitalism. This comprehensive and imaginative account is not only compelling for exposing the brutality of our current global political economy but also for doing justice to the complexities of moving beyond it, finds Helen Mackreath. Remaindered Life. Neferti X. M. Tadiar. Duke University Press. 2022

Mackreath, Helen

English

LSE Research Online

Book	Review:	Remaindered	Life	by	Neferti	X.	M.TadiarIn	Remaindered	Life,	Neferti	X.	M.	Tadiar	examines	modes	of	living	that	go	beyond	the	binary		of	‘productive’	and‘disposable’	life	propagated	under	global	capitalism.	This	comprehensive	and	imaginative	account	is	not	onlycompelling	for	exposing	the	brutality	of	our	current	global	political	economy	but	also	for	doing	justice	to	thecomplexities	of	moving	beyond	it,	finds	Helen	Mackreath.Remaindered	Life.	Neferti	X.	M.	Tadiar.	Duke	University	Press.	2022.Neferti	X.	M.	Tadiar	ends	the	last	chapter	of	Remaindered	Life	with	a	quote	fromTheodor	Adorno’s	Minima	Moralia:	‘If	[Walter]	Benjamin	said	that	history	had	hithertobeen	written	from	the	standpoint	of	the	victor,	and	needs	to	be	written	from	that	of	thevanquished,	we	might	add	that	knowledge	[…]	should	also	address	itself	to	those	things[…]	–	what	might	be	called	the	waste	products	and	blind	spots	that	have	escaped	thedialectic’	(301).Remaindered	Life	sets	out	a	rigorous	account	of	these	‘waste	products’	of	globalcapitalism,	foregrounding	an	argument	for	the	necessity	of	‘understanding	another	sideof	capitalist	production,	which	centers	not	so	much	the	productive	activity	of	life	but	itsexpenditure’	(xiv).	Tadiar	presents	the	role	played	by	the	‘reproduction	of	surplus	life’and	‘the	status,	condition	and	work	of	disposable	life	that	is	the	very	basis	of	‘‘globallife’”	(xi),	which	‘relentlessly	seeks	value	in	every	morsel	of	existence,	including	what	itwould	cast	out	as	waste’	(331).	She	distinguishes	between	what	she	terms	‘lives	worthliving’	–	those	seen	to	have	the	ability	to	accumulate	value	and	transmit	this	acrossgenerations	–	and	‘lives	worth	expending’	–	those	who	will	always	be	‘sinking’	in	valueand	instead	accumulating	waste.Rather	than	reifying	these	categories	of	‘valued’	and	‘expendable’	life,	Tadiar	traces	the	contours	of	theirconstitution.	According	to	her	critical	retelling,	the	binary	oppositions	between	exclusion	and	inclusion,	rights	andrightlessness,	freedom	and	unfreedom,	human	and	inhuman,	work	to	depoliticise	other	practices	of	‘life-making’.Instead,	she	introduces	the	concept	of	‘remaindered	life’	–	a	‘modality	of	living	that	exceeds	the	necessaryreproduction	of	the	‘‘becoming	human’’	as	a	resource	of	disposable	life	for	capital’	(13).	Tadiar	asks	what	kind	of	lifeis	possible	beyond	the	life	forms	that	drive	the	global	economy	(20-21).LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Remaindered Life by Neferti X. M. Tadiar Page 1 of 4		Date originally posted: 2022-08-02Permalink: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2022/08/02/book-review-remaindered-life-by-neferti-x-m-tadiar/Blog homepage: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/Image	Credit:	Crop	of	‘Kaleidoscope’	2020	Coastal	microplastic	flatlay	120×100	cm.	Photo	by	danlewis	on	UnsplashThis	perspective	is	made	possible	by	Tadiar’s	positioning	of	the	categories	of	‘life’	and	‘human’,	which	‘foregrounddifferences	in	their	social	uses,	practices,	valorization	and	inhabitation’	(97).	She	argues	that	the	structural	dynamicof	the	finance-driven	global	capitalist	economy	is	now	underwritten	by	a	distinction	between	‘valued’	and‘disposable’	life:	‘the	work	of	living	is	parsed	continuously	through	categories	of	value	and	waste,	categories	thatoperate	through	complex	local	and	universal	systems	for	calculating	social	worth	(sex-gender,	race,ethnicity/nationality,	sexuality,	religion)’	(6).This	‘work	of	living’	marks	both	a	continuation	of,	and	departure	from,	post-Fordist,	biocapitalist	systems	in	whichcapitalist	accumulation	has	been	constituted	by	‘life	as	labour’,	absorbing	supplemental	and	reproductive	forms	oflabour	into	processes	of	accumulation.	What	distinguishes	this	moment,	Tadiar	argues,	is	‘the	multiplying,	fractalscales	in	which	the	intensive	capitalization	of	the	waste	and	wasting	of	things,	people,	space	and	time	–	and	theirderivatives	–is	carried	out’	(32).Examples	of	disposability,	surplus	and	abandonment	can	be	found	in	the	‘open	prisons	of	occupation	(in	places	likeGaza,	Afghanistan	and	Iraq),	closed	prisons	of	judicial	punishment,	urban	slums	and	ghettoes,	and	forsakenperiurban	and	rural	zones’	(58),	as	well	as	those	‘targeted	for	injury	and	elimination	in	policing	wars	or	for	‘‘rescue’’in	humanitarian	campaigns’	(xiv).	These	are	places	of	the	‘production	of	permanently	liquid	and	liquefiablepopulations’:	the	undocumented,	the	unemployed,	the	criminalised,	the	displaced	and	the	homeless	(26).	Theserequire	‘attention,	response,	action:	management,	transportation,	containment,	disposal’	(58):	in	other	words,	‘astrategy	of	the	active	wasting	of	life’	(xiii).	This	reflects	Tadiar’s	argument	that	‘not	all	life	is	valorized	or	valorizable,that	the	extraction	of	value	from	‘‘life’’	takes	place	through	more	than	one	modality,	and	that	‘‘life’’	in	the	complexdynamics	of	capitalist	processes	assumes	radically	contradictory	forms’	(92).From	this	telling,	the	war	to	be	‘human’	and	to	live	a	life	‘worth	living’	is	waged	against	a	life	of	waste	and	absoluteexpendability.	Tadiar	invites	us	to	think	about	‘our	political	moment	in	terms	of	a	complex,	potentially	antagonisticrelation	between	a	war	to	be	human	and	becoming-human	in	a	time	of	war’	(5).	This	emerges	out	of	competingconceptions	of	what	it	means	to	‘be’	or	‘become’	human	and	who	is	allowed	to	attain	this	in	a	period	when	‘moreand	more	people	are	pushed	to	the	very	edge,	if	not	completely	beyond	the	bounds,	of	global	humanity’	(5).LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Remaindered Life by Neferti X. M. Tadiar Page 2 of 4		Date originally posted: 2022-08-02Permalink: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2022/08/02/book-review-remaindered-life-by-neferti-x-m-tadiar/Blog homepage: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/In	Tadiar’s	formulation	of	the	struggle	to	become	‘human’,	much	seems	to	hinge	on	how	she	understands	thecategory.	She	suggests	that	even	as	the	meaning	of	being	human	undergoes	revision	in	the	face	of	contemporarysocial	and	technological	changes,	‘the	inheritances	of	colonial	history	continue	to	determine	the	subjective	andmaterial	protocols	ensuring	the	human	as	a	status	of	primacy	and	geopolitical	belonging’	(6).	She	describes	‘thehuman’	variously	as	‘the	abiding	category	for	valued	existence	or	what	the	global	deems	life	worth	living’;	‘a	value-constitutive	activity	and	its	living	itself	a	form	of	labour’	(13);	and	‘humanity’	as	primarily	a	category	of	the	protected,a	status	that	accrues	to	full-fledged	subjects	under	the	universal	law	of	state	sovereignty	(11).Yet	despite	thiscriticism,	she	doesn’t	reject	the	category	of	‘the	human’	entirely,	arguing	instead	that:Becoming	human	is	this	continuing	struggle,	neither	an	ideal	nor	a	model	of	a	political	project,	not	yet	apolity	but,	rather,	multiple	strategies	of	survival	and	thriving	against	the	disposability	of	one’s	own	life,including	the	shared	being	of	one’s	belonging.	This	struggle	thus	poses	a	different	question,	beyond	thequestion	of	the	human	that	founds	its	own	disposability	(21).The	challenges	of	organising	around	such	a	vision	are	clear.	If	the	construction	of	human	lives	as	either	‘value’	or‘waste’	is	the	key	distinction	carved	by	finance-driven	capitalism,	and	the	struggle	to	‘become	human’	is	fraught	withthe	danger	of	becoming	‘dehumanised’	by	the	valorisation	of	the	market,	the	‘remainder’	is	that	which	exists	outsideof	these	dynamics.	To	find	it,	Tadiar	suggests,	‘we	must	follow	this	subsumption	of	life	through	the	categories	ofvalue	and	waste	to	see	how	dominant	protocols	for	being	human	and	the	war	to	be	human	are	intertwined	with	theprotocols	for	making	life	into	labour	and	for	wasting	life	as	enterprise’	(14).This	quest	establishes	the	opening	for	the	book’s	movement	across	an	array	of	spaces,	from	warfare	to	globalinfrastructure	to	the	‘uber-urbanization’	of	cities.	Tadiar	describes	the	figure	of	the	disposable	migrant	woman	andher	‘diminishing	capacity	to	produce	value’,	which	embodies	the	wasting	end	of	‘the	dehumanizing	process	behindforming	variable	capital’	(10).	She	introduces	us	to	Mar,	a	private	chauffeur	in	Manila,	the	Philippines,	whoseprofessional	life	is	guided	by	the	mantra	that	‘the	whole	development	of	wealth	rests	on	the	creation	of	disposabletime’	(167).	She	describes	Mar	as	serving	a	‘vital	infrastructure’	which	is	both	a	‘generator’	and	‘channel	of	capitalflows’	(171),	facilitating	connections	and	interfaces	between	capitalist	machines.	Today,	she	argues,	migrantworkers	‘act	at	once	as	manipulators	of	liquidity	and	as	liquid	assets	themselves	(171).	The	function	of	the	globaleconomy	and	social	reproduction	is	about	the	‘conversion	of	peoples’	idle	times,	their	waste	of	times,	the	life-timesof	waste	into	the	work	of	waiting	on	others’,	which	are	highly	gendered	and	racialised	processes.In	the	opening	pages	of	Remaindered	Life,	Tadiar	outlines	her	intention	not	to	present	new	evidence,	but	rather	‘toprovide	a	way	of	seeing	and	interpreting	abundant	empirical	cases	and	reports	across	diverse	contexts,	and	to	offera	conceptual	vocabulary	and	syntax	for	understanding	them	and	their	connections	to	one	another’	(xvi).It	transpires	by	the	end	of	the	book	that	this	attentiveness	to	methodology	is	nothing	less	than	the	crux	of	howTadiar	conceives	of	‘remaindered	life’	itself	–	not	as	‘resistance	by	any	existing	political	measure.	Nor	is	it	apotential	to	be	tapped,	mobilized	and	organized	[…]	What	we	take	as	remaindered	life	is	as	much	the	method	ormode	of	our	attention,	as	it	is	a	life-making	practice’	(330).	This	may	be	an	unsatisfactory	position	for	those	seekingto	dismantle	the	forms	of	capitalism	Tadiar	describes	or	shift	the	dynamics	by	which	life	is	made	‘disposable’	in	thefirst	place.	This	is	made	even	more	apparent	in	her	warning	that:	‘There	is	no	guarantee	that	what	was	remainderedwill	not	find	itself	valorized	at	another	moment,	just	as	today	the	“merely	reproductive	lives”	of	many	have	becomedirectly	capitalized.	Remaindered	life	is	rather	a	vanishing	horizon,	one	not	of	potentiality	but	of	actual	living	withoutvalue’	(69).Despite	the	ambiguities	through	which	the	concept	of	‘remaindered	life’	can	be	politically	useful,	Tadiar	does	notwalk	an	entirely	pessimistic	line.	This	is	clear	in	her	understanding	of	‘vitality’	which	occurs	‘in	encounters,	ininteractions	with	others	[…]	not	a	positive	object	but	a	simultaneous	happening-making	that	is	also	a	capacity	forbringing	such	happening-making	about’	(72).	While	she	warns	that	this	capacity	forms	part	of	the	‘life’	that	capitalsets	out	to	capture,	she	argues	that	it	perpetually	struggles	to	exceed	the	boundaries	by	which	capital	accumulationexpands.	She	draws	encouragement	from	the	‘vibrations	of	ephemeral	existences	that	compose	the	substancesand	durations	that	we	call	‘‘lives’’	and	yet	are	not	contained	by	them.	My	focus	on	remaindered	life	is	thus	a	regardfor	this	vitality	that	surpasses	capitalism’s	own	vitalism’	(72,	emphasis	added).LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Remaindered Life by Neferti X. M. Tadiar Page 3 of 4		Date originally posted: 2022-08-02Permalink: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2022/08/02/book-review-remaindered-life-by-neferti-x-m-tadiar/Blog homepage: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/This	focus	on	vitality,	movement	and	vanishing	horizons,	‘like	glints	or	floaters	in	our	eyes’	(331),	neverthelessstands	in	a	tense	relationship	with	Tadiar’s	ultimate	desire	for	‘more	generous	worlds	of	mutual	being	and	sharedliving’	(331),	raising	the	question	of	whether	these	can	ever	exist	as	anything	other	than	in	uneasy	flux.	But	hermethodological	focus	on	the	ways	that	life-times	are	produced,	saved	and	reinvested	is	not	only	useful	for	findingsomething	salvageable	in	the	cracks	of	time	between	capitalist	processes.	It	also	displaces	the	citizen	as	theprivileged	figure	of	today,	moving	beyond	a	world	of	ramparts	and	walls	to	critically	interrogate	concepts	of	value,dispossession,	sovereignty	through	flows,	fractures	and	circulations.	Such	a	comprehensive,	imaginative	andcarefully	compiled	account	of	the	interstices	of	power	and	its	workings	at	fractal	and	transnational	scales	istherefore	compelling	not	only	for	exposing	the	brutality	of	our	current	global	political	economy	but	also	for	doingjustice	to	the	complexities	of	moving	beyond	it.Note:	This	review	gives	the	views	of	the	author,	and	not	the	position	of	the	LSE	Review	of	Books	blog,	or	of	theLondon	School	of	Economics	and	Political	Science.	The	LSE	RB	blog	may	receive	a	small	commission	if	youchoose	to	make	a	purchase	through	the	above	Amazon	affiliate	link.	This	is	entirely	independent	of	the	coverage	ofthe	book	on	LSE	Review	of	Books.	LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Remaindered Life by Neferti X. M. Tadiar Page 4 of 4		Date originally posted: 2022-08-02Permalink: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2022/08/02/book-review-remaindered-life-by-neferti-x-m-tadiar/Blog homepage: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/

Book review: Remaindered life by Neferti X. M. Tadiar

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Book review: Remaindered life by Neferti X. M. Tadiar

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