Panagiotis Sotiris
Biographic Data
| ID | 1641196 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Panagiotis Sotiris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Panagiotis |
| FAMILY NAME | Sotiris |
| SIGNATURE | SOTIRIS P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Aegean |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9224-738X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Special Issue on Strategy
In a period marked by the inability of all variants of the Left to overcome the burden of defeat and fragmentation, of constant vacillations between reformism and sectarianism, this special issue of Historical Materialism attempts to reopen questions of strategy.
Revolutionary Strategy Revisited: Strategic Hypotheses and Open Questions
This article starts from the continuing pertinence of Daniel Bensaïd’s notion of the ‘strategic hypothesis’. To the hypotheses suggested by Bensaïd, it adds another hypothesis, that of ‘left government’, retracing the complex and uneven relation between Marxism and questions of governance. It revisits the ways strategic questions have been posed since the early 2000s, stressing that the strategic debate in the Marxist Left never really took off. …
How To Think With Our Bodies: Althusser's Theoretical Practice Revisited
The aim of this article is to revisit Louis Althusser’s notion of theoretical practice in order to suggest that this points to a highly original attempt to think knowledge not as something that has to do with a ‘thinking consciousness’ as traditional theories of knowledge suggest, but as a collective material process and practice. In this sense, we might say that we are thinking with our bodies rather than our minds. To that end we also revisit M…
Dictature du prolétariat et/comme îlots de communisme: Les tensions de la politique de la rencontre chez Althusser
L’objectif de cette article est de revisiter les écrits d’Althusser dans les années 1970 en défense de la dictature du prolétariat et d’examiner les tensions qui les traversent, tensions qui peuvent être mises en relation avec sa réflexion parallèle, à cette époque, sur un matérialisme potentiel de la rencontre. D’une part, Althusser a tenté de développer un projet politico-théorique très original consistant à recréer la possibilité d’une fusion …
Perspectives sur le double pouvoir dans la révolution au Portugal, de Nicos Poulantzas à Raquel Varela
Cet article revisite les dynamiques du double pouvoir durant la révolution portugaise pour interroger leur pertinence dans les débats contemporains. Il analyse tout d’abord les tensions qui traversent le texte de Nicos Poulantzas, The Crisis of the Dictatorships [La Crise des dictatures, Portugal, Grèce, Espagne], en s’appuyant également sur d’autres travaux de cette période issus de la gauche révolutionnaire. Il s’intéresse ensuite à A People’s …
Introduction to the Symposium on Massimiliano Tomba’s Insurgent Universality: An Alternative Legacy of Modernity
Revisiting the Passive Revolution
Passive revolution is one of the most debated notions to come out of the Prison Notebooks . It belongs to the notions that have been used as ‘established’ descriptions of historical and political sequences. However, a reading of Gramsci’s texts suggests that passive revolution is not a ‘historical phase’ and is not limited to the historical interpretation of a particular historical period. Nor is it part of an historical ‘canon’ that would sugges…
Is a Communist Governmentality Possible
Michel Foucault's texts in the 1970s, especially those on disciplinary power, have long been considered to represent a moment of dialogue with Marx. However, Foucault's elaborations and research in the late 1970s and 1980s up until his death, presented mainly in the form of his lectures at the Collège de France, have often been presented as a different theoretical direction and as a move away from previous considerations, both political and theor…
Rethinking Transition: Bettelheim and Linhart on the New Economic Policy
In the 1960s and 1970s, both Robert Linhart and Charles Bettelheim turned to assessing the Soviet New Economic Policy as part of their attempts to theorize a transition to socialism. This essay offers a critical reading of Robert Linhart’s contributions on this subject and compares his approach with Charles Bettelheim’s own positions, including their dialogue that appeared in the journal Communisme in 1977. The essay suggests that a return to the…
A Philosophy for Communism: Rethinking Althusser
"In A Philosophy for Communism: Rethinking Althusser Panagiotis Sotiris attempts a reading of the work of the French philosopher centered upon his deeply political conception of philosophy. Althusser's endeavour is presented as a quest for a new practice of philosophy that would enable a new practice of politics for communism, in opposition to idealism and teleology. The central point is that in his trajectory from the crucial interventions of th…
Thinking Beyond the Lockdown: On the Possibility of a Democratic Biopolitics
COVID -19 is not only a health emergency but also a strategic challenge for any politics of resistance, struggle and transformation. Understanding the social and political dynamics associated with morbidity and mortality and the many ‘ecologies of disease’ associated with the pandemic is necessary if we want to think beyond the limits of the lockdown strategy. It is here that the possibility of a democratic biopolitics emerges as part of a broade…
Is a ‘Left Populism’ Possible
This article deals with theories and political projects that can be defined as ‘left populism’. It begins with a reading and critique of the work of Ernesto Laclau on the theory of populism and then moves to recent debates about the possibility of left-populist movements. In contrast to these positions it attempts to present an alternative theoretical framework based on Gramscian notions, in order to rethink the notion of the people in ways that …
Crisis, Movement, Strategy: The Greek Experience
In 2010 Greece entered a period of extreme austerity measures, but also of intense struggles and protests. Social and political crisis led to tectonic shifts in the political landscape and the rise to power of SYRIZA. However, despite the impressive expression of resistance in the 2015 referendum, the EU-IMF-ECB ‘Troika’ managed to impose the continuation of the same politics of austerity, privatisations, and neoliberal reforms. This social and p…
Gramsci and the Challenges for the Left: The Historical Bloc as A Strategic Concept
The historical bloc is one of the central concepts of Antonio Gramsci's theoretical elaboration in the Prison Notebooks . It is not a descriptive, nor an analytic, concept. It is a strategic concept. It does not refer to social alliances, but to the intersection between analysis and strategy, representing Gramsci's attempt to theorize the possibility of hegemony in its integral form, namely in the dialectical unity of structure and superstructure…
Introduction: Refrains of Freedom
The Many Encounters of Deleuze and Marxism
Deleuze's and Guattari's work on schizoanalysis represented an important shift towards a dialogue with Marx and his critique of political economy but in the 1970s prominent Marxists attacked Deleuze (and Guattari) as anti-Marxist. This attitude marked one of the most important missed encounters between Marxism and other theoretical currents. However, there have been important recent contributions that bring forward not only the political characte…
Political crisis and the Rise of the Far Right in Greece: Racism, nationalism, authoritarianism and conservatism in the discourse of Golden Dawn
The electoral rise of Golden Dawn from obscurity to parliamentary representation has drawn attention to its particular neo-fascist discourse. In sharp contrast to the tendency of most far-right movements in Europe to present themselves as being part of the political mainstream, Golden Dawn has never disavowed its openly neo-Nazi references. Its political and ideological discourse combines extreme racism, nationalism and authoritarianism along wit…
Struggle, Not Destiny’
On the occasion of the publication of the translation of Pierre Raymond’s text on Althusser’s materialism, we attempt an introduction to his theoretical trajectory. We begin with his conception of the conflict between materialism and idealism in Le passage au matérialisme in 1973 and his thinking on the question of the history of sciences in L’histoire & les sciences (1975), before turning our attention to his elaboration on the question of a his…
From Territorial to Nonterritorial Capitalist Imperialism: Lenin and the Possibility of a Marxist Theory of Imperialism
The concept of imperialism has returned to political and theoretical debates. But there are open theoretical questions. In opposition to treating imperialism in terms of a territorial logic, we insist on the nonterritorial character of capitalist imperialism. We go back to Lenin's theoretical contribution to a possible Marxist theory of imperialism in order to distance it from theories of empire building and territorial expansion. We attempt to c…
Neither an Instrument nor a Fortress
Peter Thomas has written an important book that brings forward the full importance of Gramsci’s strategic concepts and the pertinence they have for current theoretical and political debates. Based upon this interpretation of Gramsci, this text attempts a critical reading of the contradictory stance of the Althusserian School towards his work. Using Althusser’s own ambivalence towards Gramsci as a starting-point, the main aim of this article is to…
Rethinking Structure and Conjuncture in Althusser
The relation between structure and conjuncture has been one of the biggest challenges facing social theory and Louis Althusser’s writings provide some of the most important interventions on this subject. Contrary to an image of Althusser first embracing and then abandoning structuralism, Althusser tried from the beginning to articulate the theory of structural causality with an insistence on the singularity of historical conjunctures. Althusser’s…
How to Make Lasting Encounters: Althusser and Political Subjectivity
One criticism of Louis Althusser is that his theory of ideology and his conception of history as a process without a subject together underestimate the question of the subject and undermine any attempt toward a critical subjectivity. Althusser's work, however, from his emphasis on the conjuncture as a singular condensation of overdetermined contradictions to his later writings on lasting encounters, brings forward the open question of political a…
Postcards from the Future: The Greek Debt Crisis, the Struggle against the EU‐IMF Austerity Package and the Open Questions for Left Strategy
The Gramscian Challenge
Beyond Simple Fidelity to the Event: The Limits of Alain Badiou’s Ontology
This article attempts a Marxist critique of Alain Badiou’s positions. The importance of Badiou’s ontology as an affirmation of the possibility of radical-historical novelty is stressed, but also its limits. These limits have to do with Badiou’s abandonment of a dialectical-relational conception of social reality, his refusal of any causal connection between social reality, political decision and event, and the absence of a theory of ideology and …
Thinking Beyond the Lockdown: On the Possibility of a Democratic Biopolitics
COVID -19 is not only a health emergency but also a strategic challenge for any politics of resistance, struggle and transformation. Understanding the social and political dynamics associated with morbidity and mortality and the many ‘ecologies of disease’ associated with the pandemic is necessary if we want to think beyond the limits of the lockdown strategy. It is here that the possibility of a democratic biopolitics emerges as part of a broade…
Gramsci and the Challenges for the Left: The Historical Bloc as A Strategic Concept
The historical bloc is one of the central concepts of Antonio Gramsci's theoretical elaboration in the Prison Notebooks . It is not a descriptive, nor an analytic, concept. It is a strategic concept. It does not refer to social alliances, but to the intersection between analysis and strategy, representing Gramsci's attempt to theorize the possibility of hegemony in its integral form, namely in the dialectical unity of structure and superstructure…
American Foreign Policy as Modern Imperialism: From Armed Humanitarianism to Preemptive War
Elements of a Marxist theory of imperialism can help explain current U. S. foreign policy as a hegemonic imperialist project. Contrary to the American decline thesis, after the col-lapse of the Soviet bloc the United States managed to retain its hegemonic position in the imperialist chain. This was based on an imperialist strategy that combined full implementation of neoliberal policies and capitalist restructuring of production with increased em…
Rethinking Structure and Conjuncture in Althusser
The relation between structure and conjuncture has been one of the biggest challenges facing social theory and Louis Althusser’s writings provide some of the most important interventions on this subject. Contrary to an image of Althusser first embracing and then abandoning structuralism, Althusser tried from the beginning to articulate the theory of structural causality with an insistence on the singularity of historical conjunctures. Althusser’s…
Rebels with a Cause: The December 2008 Greek Youth Movement as the Condensation of Deeper Social and Political Contradictions
The events of December 2008 in Greece represent a turning point in social movements against neoliberalism and capitalist restructuring. They were the result of worsening employment prospects for young people, the aggressive restructuring of the educational system and concern about the effects of the current economic crisis. The originality of the movement lies in its unique scale, in the expression of a new unity of youth in struggle, in the dema…
Is a ‘Left Populism’ Possible
This article deals with theories and political projects that can be defined as ‘left populism’. It begins with a reading and critique of the work of Ernesto Laclau on the theory of populism and then moves to recent debates about the possibility of left-populist movements. In contrast to these positions it attempts to present an alternative theoretical framework based on Gramscian notions, in order to rethink the notion of the people in ways that …
Revisiting the Passive Revolution
Passive revolution is one of the most debated notions to come out of the Prison Notebooks . It belongs to the notions that have been used as ‘established’ descriptions of historical and political sequences. However, a reading of Gramsci’s texts suggests that passive revolution is not a ‘historical phase’ and is not limited to the historical interpretation of a particular historical period. Nor is it part of an historical ‘canon’ that would sugges…
How to Make Lasting Encounters: Althusser and Political Subjectivity
One criticism of Louis Althusser is that his theory of ideology and his conception of history as a process without a subject together underestimate the question of the subject and undermine any attempt toward a critical subjectivity. Althusser's work, however, from his emphasis on the conjuncture as a singular condensation of overdetermined contradictions to his later writings on lasting encounters, brings forward the open question of political a…
Postcards from the Future: The Greek Debt Crisis, the Struggle against the EU‐IMF Austerity Package and the Open Questions for Left Strategy
Beyond Simple Fidelity to the Event: The Limits of Alain Badiou’s Ontology
This article attempts a Marxist critique of Alain Badiou’s positions. The importance of Badiou’s ontology as an affirmation of the possibility of radical-historical novelty is stressed, but also its limits. These limits have to do with Badiou’s abandonment of a dialectical-relational conception of social reality, his refusal of any causal connection between social reality, political decision and event, and the absence of a theory of ideology and …
Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978–1987
From Territorial to Nonterritorial Capitalist Imperialism: Lenin and the Possibility of a Marxist Theory of Imperialism
The concept of imperialism has returned to political and theoretical debates. But there are open theoretical questions. In opposition to treating imperialism in terms of a territorial logic, we insist on the nonterritorial character of capitalist imperialism. We go back to Lenin's theoretical contribution to a possible Marxist theory of imperialism in order to distance it from theories of empire building and territorial expansion. We attempt to c…
Neither an Instrument nor a Fortress
Peter Thomas has written an important book that brings forward the full importance of Gramsci’s strategic concepts and the pertinence they have for current theoretical and political debates. Based upon this interpretation of Gramsci, this text attempts a critical reading of the contradictory stance of the Althusserian School towards his work. Using Althusser’s own ambivalence towards Gramsci as a starting-point, the main aim of this article is to…
Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978–1987
American Foreign Policy as Modern Imperialism: From Armed Humanitarianism to Preemptive War
Elements of a Marxist theory of imperialism can help explain current U. S. foreign policy as a hegemonic imperialist project. Contrary to the American decline thesis, after the col-lapse of the Soviet bloc the United States managed to retain its hegemonic position in the imperialist chain. This was based on an imperialist strategy that combined full implementation of neoliberal policies and capitalist restructuring of production with increased em…
Louis Althusser Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism Althusser: The Detour of Theory
In the past few years there has been a renewed interest in the work of Louis Althusser, although, in some cases, this interest has been one-sided, focusing mainly on his later writings on aleatory materialism. The three books reviewed in this article, however, offer balanced and insightful overviews of the totality of Althusser's work, placing it in the wider context of Marxist political and theoretical debates and stressing both its originality …
Rebels with a Cause: The December 2008 Greek Youth Movement as the Condensation of Deeper Social and Political Contradictions
The events of December 2008 in Greece represent a turning point in social movements against neoliberalism and capitalist restructuring. They were the result of worsening employment prospects for young people, the aggressive restructuring of the educational system and concern about the effects of the current economic crisis. The originality of the movement lies in its unique scale, in the expression of a new unity of youth in struggle, in the dema…
Beyond Simple Fidelity to the Event: The Limits of Alain Badiou’s Ontology
This article attempts a Marxist critique of Alain Badiou’s positions. The importance of Badiou’s ontology as an affirmation of the possibility of radical-historical novelty is stressed, but also its limits. These limits have to do with Badiou’s abandonment of a dialectical-relational conception of social reality, his refusal of any causal connection between social reality, political decision and event, and the absence of a theory of ideology and …
The Gramscian Challenge
Neither an Instrument nor a Fortress
Peter Thomas has written an important book that brings forward the full importance of Gramsci’s strategic concepts and the pertinence they have for current theoretical and political debates. Based upon this interpretation of Gramsci, this text attempts a critical reading of the contradictory stance of the Althusserian School towards his work. Using Althusser’s own ambivalence towards Gramsci as a starting-point, the main aim of this article is to…
Rethinking Structure and Conjuncture in Althusser
The relation between structure and conjuncture has been one of the biggest challenges facing social theory and Louis Althusser’s writings provide some of the most important interventions on this subject. Contrary to an image of Althusser first embracing and then abandoning structuralism, Althusser tried from the beginning to articulate the theory of structural causality with an insistence on the singularity of historical conjunctures. Althusser’s…
How to Make Lasting Encounters: Althusser and Political Subjectivity
One criticism of Louis Althusser is that his theory of ideology and his conception of history as a process without a subject together underestimate the question of the subject and undermine any attempt toward a critical subjectivity. Althusser's work, however, from his emphasis on the conjuncture as a singular condensation of overdetermined contradictions to his later writings on lasting encounters, brings forward the open question of political a…
Postcards from the Future: The Greek Debt Crisis, the Struggle against the EU‐IMF Austerity Package and the Open Questions for Left Strategy
Political crisis and the Rise of the Far Right in Greece: Racism, nationalism, authoritarianism and conservatism in the discourse of Golden Dawn
The electoral rise of Golden Dawn from obscurity to parliamentary representation has drawn attention to its particular neo-fascist discourse. In sharp contrast to the tendency of most far-right movements in Europe to present themselves as being part of the political mainstream, Golden Dawn has never disavowed its openly neo-Nazi references. Its political and ideological discourse combines extreme racism, nationalism and authoritarianism along wit…
Struggle, Not Destiny’
On the occasion of the publication of the translation of Pierre Raymond’s text on Althusser’s materialism, we attempt an introduction to his theoretical trajectory. We begin with his conception of the conflict between materialism and idealism in Le passage au matérialisme in 1973 and his thinking on the question of the history of sciences in L’histoire & les sciences (1975), before turning our attention to his elaboration on the question of a his…
From Territorial to Nonterritorial Capitalist Imperialism: Lenin and the Possibility of a Marxist Theory of Imperialism
The concept of imperialism has returned to political and theoretical debates. But there are open theoretical questions. In opposition to treating imperialism in terms of a territorial logic, we insist on the nonterritorial character of capitalist imperialism. We go back to Lenin's theoretical contribution to a possible Marxist theory of imperialism in order to distance it from theories of empire building and territorial expansion. We attempt to c…
Introduction: Refrains of Freedom
The Many Encounters of Deleuze and Marxism
Deleuze's and Guattari's work on schizoanalysis represented an important shift towards a dialogue with Marx and his critique of political economy but in the 1970s prominent Marxists attacked Deleuze (and Guattari) as anti-Marxist. This attitude marked one of the most important missed encounters between Marxism and other theoretical currents. However, there have been important recent contributions that bring forward not only the political characte…
Gramsci and the Challenges for the Left: The Historical Bloc as A Strategic Concept
The historical bloc is one of the central concepts of Antonio Gramsci's theoretical elaboration in the Prison Notebooks . It is not a descriptive, nor an analytic, concept. It is a strategic concept. It does not refer to social alliances, but to the intersection between analysis and strategy, representing Gramsci's attempt to theorize the possibility of hegemony in its integral form, namely in the dialectical unity of structure and superstructure…
Crisis, Movement, Strategy: The Greek Experience
In 2010 Greece entered a period of extreme austerity measures, but also of intense struggles and protests. Social and political crisis led to tectonic shifts in the political landscape and the rise to power of SYRIZA. However, despite the impressive expression of resistance in the 2015 referendum, the EU-IMF-ECB ‘Troika’ managed to impose the continuation of the same politics of austerity, privatisations, and neoliberal reforms. This social and p…
Is a ‘Left Populism’ Possible
This article deals with theories and political projects that can be defined as ‘left populism’. It begins with a reading and critique of the work of Ernesto Laclau on the theory of populism and then moves to recent debates about the possibility of left-populist movements. In contrast to these positions it attempts to present an alternative theoretical framework based on Gramscian notions, in order to rethink the notion of the people in ways that …
A Philosophy for Communism: Rethinking Althusser
"In A Philosophy for Communism: Rethinking Althusser Panagiotis Sotiris attempts a reading of the work of the French philosopher centered upon his deeply political conception of philosophy. Althusser's endeavour is presented as a quest for a new practice of philosophy that would enable a new practice of politics for communism, in opposition to idealism and teleology. The central point is that in his trajectory from the crucial interventions of th…
Thinking Beyond the Lockdown: On the Possibility of a Democratic Biopolitics
COVID -19 is not only a health emergency but also a strategic challenge for any politics of resistance, struggle and transformation. Understanding the social and political dynamics associated with morbidity and mortality and the many ‘ecologies of disease’ associated with the pandemic is necessary if we want to think beyond the limits of the lockdown strategy. It is here that the possibility of a democratic biopolitics emerges as part of a broade…
Rethinking Transition: Bettelheim and Linhart on the New Economic Policy
In the 1960s and 1970s, both Robert Linhart and Charles Bettelheim turned to assessing the Soviet New Economic Policy as part of their attempts to theorize a transition to socialism. This essay offers a critical reading of Robert Linhart’s contributions on this subject and compares his approach with Charles Bettelheim’s own positions, including their dialogue that appeared in the journal Communisme in 1977. The essay suggests that a return to the…
Revisiting the Passive Revolution
Passive revolution is one of the most debated notions to come out of the Prison Notebooks . It belongs to the notions that have been used as ‘established’ descriptions of historical and political sequences. However, a reading of Gramsci’s texts suggests that passive revolution is not a ‘historical phase’ and is not limited to the historical interpretation of a particular historical period. Nor is it part of an historical ‘canon’ that would sugges…
Is a Communist Governmentality Possible
Michel Foucault's texts in the 1970s, especially those on disciplinary power, have long been considered to represent a moment of dialogue with Marx. However, Foucault's elaborations and research in the late 1970s and 1980s up until his death, presented mainly in the form of his lectures at the Collège de France, have often been presented as a different theoretical direction and as a move away from previous considerations, both political and theor…
Introduction to the Symposium on Massimiliano Tomba’s Insurgent Universality: An Alternative Legacy of Modernity
Dictature du prolétariat et/comme îlots de communisme: Les tensions de la politique de la rencontre chez Althusser
L’objectif de cette article est de revisiter les écrits d’Althusser dans les années 1970 en défense de la dictature du prolétariat et d’examiner les tensions qui les traversent, tensions qui peuvent être mises en relation avec sa réflexion parallèle, à cette époque, sur un matérialisme potentiel de la rencontre. D’une part, Althusser a tenté de développer un projet politico-théorique très original consistant à recréer la possibilité d’une fusion …
Political science (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Politics (18 works) · Epistemology (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Marxism and Critical Theory (12 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (9 works)