Αlexandros Kioupkiolis
Biographic Data
| ID | 3577518 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Αlexandros Kioupkiolis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Αlexandros |
| FAMILY NAME | Kioupkiolis |
| SIGNATURE | KIOUPKIOLIS Α |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4016-7126 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 376 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Antifeminist Regress in Greece Today
This article examines the resurgence of antifeminist politics in Greece from 2010–2024, a period defined by economic and socio-political crises. It analyses how patriarchal, nationalist, and homophobic discourses have strategically targeted feminist and LGBTQIA+ rights, focusing on key actors, such as the Greek Orthodox Church, far-right groups, and new antifeminist factions that promote ‘men’s rights’ under the pretext of equality. The nub of ou…
Democratic change and alter-political cooperativism
In recent years, theorists and activists championing the ‘commons’ have propounded a socio-centric idea of democratic resistance and renewal with a global address. This conception holds that the making of new social relations and practices here and now should be the main pillar of activity aiming at wide-ranging social reconstruction. The present paper complicates and qualifies this thesis. Socio-economic and technological breakthroughs can effec…
Left populism, commons and radical democracy
This paper advances the thesis that democratic populism and the commons can and should complement each other in counter-hegemonic interventions promoting egalitarian and ecological democracy in our times. After elucidating its key terms, the article makes, first, a theoretical case for the combination of egalitarian, inclusionary populism and the commons by debunking arguments which highlight the conflicts between them and by explaining the polit…
Italian alliances between commoning and law
The "commons" have become a rallying point of social mobilization against privatization and a linchpin of collective civic empowerment and democratic renewal in several countries. What singles out the Italian "laboratory" of urban commons in recent years is the coalescence of pro-commons lawyers with activists, movements, and grassroots collectives. The central role played by law in the Italian commons network must be read in the light of the dis…
Common education in schools. Gauging potentials for democratic transformation
This article examines how educational commons, in which teaching and learning are shaped by the entire educational community on terms of equal freedom, contribute to democratic empowerment and renewal. Intervening in the critical debate over public formal education and the scope it allows for radical democratization, discussion draws on a case study conducted in the self-organized school Solidarity School Mesopotamia in Moschato, Athens, Greece. …
Counter-hegemonic strategies for democratic alter- politics
This article critically engages with the political strategies of the new social and political movements that emerged in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-8. It takes issue with discussions of contemporary alter-political practice and theory that overlook the crucial point that the creation of new social institutions and relations in the here and now - a central part of this politics - must itself be political: it argues for …
Counter-hegemonic leadership for democratic alter-politics in our times
This article sets out to grapple with strategic challenges facing democratic alter-politics in our times, dwelling on the question of leadership to explore ways of overcoming the frailties and risks that beset grassroots collective agency for democratic renewal. Discussion begins thus by fleshing out the notion of contemporary democratic alter-politics which breaks both with top-down statist rule and conventional activism, fostering openness, div…
Transforming city government
This paper examines nascent alternative approaches to “commoning” and “common goods” that have been developed over the last decade by a unique coalition of lawyers, grassroots initiatives, and local governments in Italian cities, notably Bologna and Naples. The aim is to flesh out and to critically appraise two variants of a strategy for advancing urban commons in the direction of Integrative Governance, civic equality, power-with, solidarity, pl…
The Common and Counter-Hegemonic Politics
Introduces agonistic theory and hegemony into contemporary debates on the common Alexandros Kioupkiolis re-conceptualises the common in tandem with the political. By engaging with key thinkers of community and the commons, he harnesses the political thrust of a radical democratic politics of solidarity, equality and collective self-organisation. He calls into play poststructuralist conceptions of agonism and hegemony to remedy the failure of exis…
Reflexive technopopulism
Its reliance on social media and television to mobilise supporters and popularise the figure of its charismatic leader, political science lecturer Pablo Iglesias, is one of the main characteristic features of Podemos, a new, left-leaning populist party that has shaken the political establishment of Spain since its irruption as a decisive political force in the 2014 European elections. Podemos could actually be defined as a ‘transmedia party’, as …
Populism, anti-populism and crisis
Commoning the political, politicizing the common
Movements post-hegemony
‘Post-hegemony’ is a critical notion introduced by theorists who take issue with the modern politics of hierarchical organization, representation, unification, the state and ideology: the politics of ‘hegemony’ according to A. Gramsci and E. Laclau. Post-hegemonic thinkers tend to celebrate, by contrast, contemporary social movements which appear to be horizontal, leaderless, participatory, diverse, networked and opposed to the state, global capi…
Common Democracy
At a time when representative democracies are in deep crisis, this article examines the debate over representation as it appears in contemporary Marxist and poststructuralist political thought. The article discusses, more specifically, Ernesto Laclau’s defense of political representation and pits this against Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s vision of an “absolute democracy” beyond representation, in order to chart a path between and beyond both…
Extreme right-wing populism in Europe
Revisiting the trend of identifying populism with extreme right parties, in this paper we aim to problematize such associations within the context of today’s Europe. Drawing on examples from relevant parties in France and the Netherlands, and applying a discourse-theoretical methodology, we test the hypothesis that such parties are better categorized primarily as nationalist and only secondarily – and reluctantly – as ‘populist’. Our hypothesis f…
Acts, Events and the Creation of the New
Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today
Podemos
The paper inquires critically into Podemos as an instance of left-wing populism in contemporary European politics, putting forward four claims and a major thesis. First, Podemos was started as an original endeavour to ally in a hybrid mix two divergent approaches to democratic politics: the horizontal, open and networked mobilizations of the multitude, and the vertical, hierarchical, formal and representative structures of party formations, on th…
Contemporary Left-wing Populism in Latin America
Critical engagement with the case ofChavismoin Venezuela can offer valuable insights for a fuller understanding of contemporary populism in Latin America. While for some scholars Chávez's populism has fostered popular empowerment, others dwell on the newly confirmed tensions between populism, liberal rights, and democratic proceduralism. This article embraces both positions but moves beyond their one-sidedness to castChavistapopulism as an inhere…
Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today
Contents: Introduction: radical democracy and collective movements today: responding to the challenges of kairos, Alexandros Kioupkiolis and Giorgos Katsambekis Post-hegemony: politics outside the usual post-Marxist paradigm, Benjamin Arditi Letter to a Greek anarchist: on multitudes, peoples, and new empires, Richard J.F. Day and Nick Montgomery Sovereignty of the people, Jodi Dean Occupy and autonomous political life, Saul Newman Hegemony or po…
Towards a Regime of Post-political Biopower? Dispatches from Greece, 2010-2012
This article makes the case that Greece has witnessed a transition from a 'post-democratic' condition in the '90 s and the early 21st century to a regime of 'post-political biopower' in 2010-12 that can bid democracy farewell. To adequately theorize this modality of power in a way pertinent to contemporary Greece, the paper takes its bearings from Agamben's take on biopower, the homo sacer and the endless state of exception. But the analysis fill…
The Protection and Negation of Life
Late Agonies of Liberty in Common
Radical ventures to expand common liberty push against various challenges. A conflictual plurality of perspectives interlocks with skepticism about the possibility of perfect freedom and equality. A salient response is an "agonistic" turn in the construction of freedom, bringing together difference, contingency, struggle, and creativity. However, more needs to be done in addressing the potential conflict of singularities in equal liberty. This pa…
Freedom After the Critique of Foundations
An exploration of the contemporary re-conception of freedom after the critique of objective truths and ideas of an unchanging human nature, in which modern self-determination was grounded. This book f
The agonistic turn of critical reason
Straddling the divide between universalism and relativism, agonistic reason as construed by Foucault and Castoriadis dismisses universal foundations without becoming context-bound or inescapably subjectivist. It is propelled by a strong commitment to freedom and it draws flexibly on available resources and its creative potentials in order to vindicate its conditional claims. This provides a hyper-critical and liberating mode of critical reason wh…
Populism, anti-populism and crisis
Podemos
The paper inquires critically into Podemos as an instance of left-wing populism in contemporary European politics, putting forward four claims and a major thesis. First, Podemos was started as an original endeavour to ally in a hybrid mix two divergent approaches to democratic politics: the horizontal, open and networked mobilizations of the multitude, and the vertical, hierarchical, formal and representative structures of party formations, on th…
Extreme right-wing populism in Europe
Revisiting the trend of identifying populism with extreme right parties, in this paper we aim to problematize such associations within the context of today’s Europe. Drawing on examples from relevant parties in France and the Netherlands, and applying a discourse-theoretical methodology, we test the hypothesis that such parties are better categorized primarily as nationalist and only secondarily – and reluctantly – as ‘populist’. Our hypothesis f…
Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today
Contents: Introduction: radical democracy and collective movements today: responding to the challenges of kairos, Alexandros Kioupkiolis and Giorgos Katsambekis Post-hegemony: politics outside the usual post-Marxist paradigm, Benjamin Arditi Letter to a Greek anarchist: on multitudes, peoples, and new empires, Richard J.F. Day and Nick Montgomery Sovereignty of the people, Jodi Dean Occupy and autonomous political life, Saul Newman Hegemony or po…
Towards a Regime of Post-political Biopower? Dispatches from Greece, 2010-2012
This article makes the case that Greece has witnessed a transition from a 'post-democratic' condition in the '90 s and the early 21st century to a regime of 'post-political biopower' in 2010-12 that can bid democracy farewell. To adequately theorize this modality of power in a way pertinent to contemporary Greece, the paper takes its bearings from Agamben's take on biopower, the homo sacer and the endless state of exception. But the analysis fill…
Contemporary Left-wing Populism in Latin America
Critical engagement with the case ofChavismoin Venezuela can offer valuable insights for a fuller understanding of contemporary populism in Latin America. While for some scholars Chávez's populism has fostered popular empowerment, others dwell on the newly confirmed tensions between populism, liberal rights, and democratic proceduralism. This article embraces both positions but moves beyond their one-sidedness to castChavistapopulism as an inhere…
Reflexive technopopulism
Its reliance on social media and television to mobilise supporters and popularise the figure of its charismatic leader, political science lecturer Pablo Iglesias, is one of the main characteristic features of Podemos, a new, left-leaning populist party that has shaken the political establishment of Spain since its irruption as a decisive political force in the 2014 European elections. Podemos could actually be defined as a ‘transmedia party’, as …
Commoning the political, politicizing the common
Radicalizing Democracy
Movements post-hegemony
‘Post-hegemony’ is a critical notion introduced by theorists who take issue with the modern politics of hierarchical organization, representation, unification, the state and ideology: the politics of ‘hegemony’ according to A. Gramsci and E. Laclau. Post-hegemonic thinkers tend to celebrate, by contrast, contemporary social movements which appear to be horizontal, leaderless, participatory, diverse, networked and opposed to the state, global capi…
Common Democracy
At a time when representative democracies are in deep crisis, this article examines the debate over representation as it appears in contemporary Marxist and poststructuralist political thought. The article discusses, more specifically, Ernesto Laclau’s defense of political representation and pits this against Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s vision of an “absolute democracy” beyond representation, in order to chart a path between and beyond both…
Keeping it open
Its preoccupation with ontology presents radical democracy with a thorny dilemma: how to combine commitment and affirmation with a distinctive emphasis on contingency and contestability. The article addresses this dilemma by engaging with three different perspectives. Ernesto Laclau’s work shows the intrinsic constraints of ontology and the inadequacy of a simple distinction between ontology and ethico-political decision. Simon Critchley opposes …
Three Paradigms of Modern Freedom
The paper makes a case for the new paradigm of freedom which has been elaborated by thinkers such as Cornelius Castoriadis and Michel Foucault. In response to the critique of the subject, freedom is construed now as limited and agonistic, calling for an ongoing struggle against various constraints. But this idea is coupled with a heightened appreciation of contingency and creativity. Individuals can bring new possibilities into existence, which g…
Left populism, commons and radical democracy
This paper advances the thesis that democratic populism and the commons can and should complement each other in counter-hegemonic interventions promoting egalitarian and ecological democracy in our times. After elucidating its key terms, the article makes, first, a theoretical case for the combination of egalitarian, inclusionary populism and the commons by debunking arguments which highlight the conflicts between them and by explaining the polit…
Counter-hegemonic leadership for democratic alter-politics in our times
This article sets out to grapple with strategic challenges facing democratic alter-politics in our times, dwelling on the question of leadership to explore ways of overcoming the frailties and risks that beset grassroots collective agency for democratic renewal. Discussion begins thus by fleshing out the notion of contemporary democratic alter-politics which breaks both with top-down statist rule and conventional activism, fostering openness, div…
The agonistic turn of critical reason
Straddling the divide between universalism and relativism, agonistic reason as construed by Foucault and Castoriadis dismisses universal foundations without becoming context-bound or inescapably subjectivist. It is propelled by a strong commitment to freedom and it draws flexibly on available resources and its creative potentials in order to vindicate its conditional claims. This provides a hyper-critical and liberating mode of critical reason wh…
Transforming city government
This paper examines nascent alternative approaches to “commoning” and “common goods” that have been developed over the last decade by a unique coalition of lawyers, grassroots initiatives, and local governments in Italian cities, notably Bologna and Naples. The aim is to flesh out and to critically appraise two variants of a strategy for advancing urban commons in the direction of Integrative Governance, civic equality, power-with, solidarity, pl…
Post-Critical Liberalism and Agonistic Freedom
Acts, Events and the Creation of the New
The Protection and Negation of Life
Late Agonies of Liberty in Common
Radical ventures to expand common liberty push against various challenges. A conflictual plurality of perspectives interlocks with skepticism about the possibility of perfect freedom and equality. A salient response is an "agonistic" turn in the construction of freedom, bringing together difference, contingency, struggle, and creativity. However, more needs to be done in addressing the potential conflict of singularities in equal liberty. This pa…
Post-Critical Liberalism and Agonistic Freedom
Three Paradigms of Modern Freedom
The paper makes a case for the new paradigm of freedom which has been elaborated by thinkers such as Cornelius Castoriadis and Michel Foucault. In response to the critique of the subject, freedom is construed now as limited and agonistic, calling for an ongoing struggle against various constraints. But this idea is coupled with a heightened appreciation of contingency and creativity. Individuals can bring new possibilities into existence, which g…
Radicalizing Democracy
Keeping it open
Its preoccupation with ontology presents radical democracy with a thorny dilemma: how to combine commitment and affirmation with a distinctive emphasis on contingency and contestability. The article addresses this dilemma by engaging with three different perspectives. Ernesto Laclau’s work shows the intrinsic constraints of ontology and the inadequacy of a simple distinction between ontology and ethico-political decision. Simon Critchley opposes …
Freedom After the Critique of Foundations
An exploration of the contemporary re-conception of freedom after the critique of objective truths and ideas of an unchanging human nature, in which modern self-determination was grounded. This book f
The agonistic turn of critical reason
Straddling the divide between universalism and relativism, agonistic reason as construed by Foucault and Castoriadis dismisses universal foundations without becoming context-bound or inescapably subjectivist. It is propelled by a strong commitment to freedom and it draws flexibly on available resources and its creative potentials in order to vindicate its conditional claims. This provides a hyper-critical and liberating mode of critical reason wh…
The Protection and Negation of Life
Late Agonies of Liberty in Common
Radical ventures to expand common liberty push against various challenges. A conflictual plurality of perspectives interlocks with skepticism about the possibility of perfect freedom and equality. A salient response is an "agonistic" turn in the construction of freedom, bringing together difference, contingency, struggle, and creativity. However, more needs to be done in addressing the potential conflict of singularities in equal liberty. This pa…
Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today
Contents: Introduction: radical democracy and collective movements today: responding to the challenges of kairos, Alexandros Kioupkiolis and Giorgos Katsambekis Post-hegemony: politics outside the usual post-Marxist paradigm, Benjamin Arditi Letter to a Greek anarchist: on multitudes, peoples, and new empires, Richard J.F. Day and Nick Montgomery Sovereignty of the people, Jodi Dean Occupy and autonomous political life, Saul Newman Hegemony or po…
Towards a Regime of Post-political Biopower? Dispatches from Greece, 2010-2012
This article makes the case that Greece has witnessed a transition from a 'post-democratic' condition in the '90 s and the early 21st century to a regime of 'post-political biopower' in 2010-12 that can bid democracy farewell. To adequately theorize this modality of power in a way pertinent to contemporary Greece, the paper takes its bearings from Agamben's take on biopower, the homo sacer and the endless state of exception. But the analysis fill…
Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today
Podemos
The paper inquires critically into Podemos as an instance of left-wing populism in contemporary European politics, putting forward four claims and a major thesis. First, Podemos was started as an original endeavour to ally in a hybrid mix two divergent approaches to democratic politics: the horizontal, open and networked mobilizations of the multitude, and the vertical, hierarchical, formal and representative structures of party formations, on th…
Contemporary Left-wing Populism in Latin America
Critical engagement with the case ofChavismoin Venezuela can offer valuable insights for a fuller understanding of contemporary populism in Latin America. While for some scholars Chávez's populism has fostered popular empowerment, others dwell on the newly confirmed tensions between populism, liberal rights, and democratic proceduralism. This article embraces both positions but moves beyond their one-sidedness to castChavistapopulism as an inhere…
Common Democracy
At a time when representative democracies are in deep crisis, this article examines the debate over representation as it appears in contemporary Marxist and poststructuralist political thought. The article discusses, more specifically, Ernesto Laclau’s defense of political representation and pits this against Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s vision of an “absolute democracy” beyond representation, in order to chart a path between and beyond both…
Extreme right-wing populism in Europe
Revisiting the trend of identifying populism with extreme right parties, in this paper we aim to problematize such associations within the context of today’s Europe. Drawing on examples from relevant parties in France and the Netherlands, and applying a discourse-theoretical methodology, we test the hypothesis that such parties are better categorized primarily as nationalist and only secondarily – and reluctantly – as ‘populist’. Our hypothesis f…
Acts, Events and the Creation of the New
Reflexive technopopulism
Its reliance on social media and television to mobilise supporters and popularise the figure of its charismatic leader, political science lecturer Pablo Iglesias, is one of the main characteristic features of Podemos, a new, left-leaning populist party that has shaken the political establishment of Spain since its irruption as a decisive political force in the 2014 European elections. Podemos could actually be defined as a ‘transmedia party’, as …
Populism, anti-populism and crisis
Commoning the political, politicizing the common
Movements post-hegemony
‘Post-hegemony’ is a critical notion introduced by theorists who take issue with the modern politics of hierarchical organization, representation, unification, the state and ideology: the politics of ‘hegemony’ according to A. Gramsci and E. Laclau. Post-hegemonic thinkers tend to celebrate, by contrast, contemporary social movements which appear to be horizontal, leaderless, participatory, diverse, networked and opposed to the state, global capi…
The Common and Counter-Hegemonic Politics
Introduces agonistic theory and hegemony into contemporary debates on the common Alexandros Kioupkiolis re-conceptualises the common in tandem with the political. By engaging with key thinkers of community and the commons, he harnesses the political thrust of a radical democratic politics of solidarity, equality and collective self-organisation. He calls into play poststructuralist conceptions of agonism and hegemony to remedy the failure of exis…
Transforming city government
This paper examines nascent alternative approaches to “commoning” and “common goods” that have been developed over the last decade by a unique coalition of lawyers, grassroots initiatives, and local governments in Italian cities, notably Bologna and Naples. The aim is to flesh out and to critically appraise two variants of a strategy for advancing urban commons in the direction of Integrative Governance, civic equality, power-with, solidarity, pl…
Common education in schools. Gauging potentials for democratic transformation
This article examines how educational commons, in which teaching and learning are shaped by the entire educational community on terms of equal freedom, contribute to democratic empowerment and renewal. Intervening in the critical debate over public formal education and the scope it allows for radical democratization, discussion draws on a case study conducted in the self-organized school Solidarity School Mesopotamia in Moschato, Athens, Greece. …
Counter-hegemonic strategies for democratic alter- politics
This article critically engages with the political strategies of the new social and political movements that emerged in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-8. It takes issue with discussions of contemporary alter-political practice and theory that overlook the crucial point that the creation of new social institutions and relations in the here and now - a central part of this politics - must itself be political: it argues for …
Counter-hegemonic leadership for democratic alter-politics in our times
This article sets out to grapple with strategic challenges facing democratic alter-politics in our times, dwelling on the question of leadership to explore ways of overcoming the frailties and risks that beset grassroots collective agency for democratic renewal. Discussion begins thus by fleshing out the notion of contemporary democratic alter-politics which breaks both with top-down statist rule and conventional activism, fostering openness, div…
Sociology (27 works) · Law (26 works) · Political science (26 works) · Politics (24 works) · Democracy (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Political economy (13 works) · Hegemony (11 works)