Stuart Elden
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stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden
@stuartelden.bsky.social
9.8K followers 1.3K following 1.5K posts

Political theorist, political geographer, now mainly write on the history of ideas. Professor at University of Warwick, work on territory, Foucault, Lefebvre and new project on Indo-European thought in C20th France. https://progressivegeographies.com .. more

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Sociology 31%
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stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 9h
Maybe, though that would need to be developed as a claim (and this is hardly the place for that). Here's the last page of Foucault's response to Derrida, which is what I had in mind: p. 27 in the earlier Geoff Bennington translation from the Oxford Literary Review - www.jstor.org/stable/43973...
On one fact at least I am in agreement: it is not as an effect of their lack of attention that before Derrida and in like manner the classical interpreters erased this passage from Descartes. It is by system. A system of which Derrida is the most decisive modern representative, in its final glory: the reduction of discursive practices to textual traces; the elision of the events produced therein and the retention only of marks for a reading; the invention of voices behind texts to avoid having to analyse the modes of implication of the subject in discourses; the assigning of the originary as said and unsaid in the text to avoid replacing discursive practices in the field of transformations where they are carried out. I will not say that it is a metaphysics, metaphysics itself or its closure which is hiding in this 'textual isation' of discursive practices. I'll go much further than that: I shall say that what can be seen here so visibly is a historic- ally well-determined little pedagogy. A pedagogy which teaches the pupil that there is nothing outside the text, but that in it, in its gaps, its blanks and its silences, there reigns the reserve of the origin; that it is therefore unnecessary to search elsewhere, but that here, not in the words, certainly, but in the words under erasure, in their grid , the 'sense of being' is said. A pedagogy which gives conversely to the master's voice the limitless sovereignty which allows it to restate the text indefinitely.

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 10h
I'm not sure. I don't think he responds to that aspect in his two replies to Derrida - either the original Japanese one or the more developed "My Body, This Paper, This Fire". It might be seen in the comments about textualisation, the trace, and pedagogy perhaps.

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 13h
But these comparisons - and there are loads more Foucault texts compared on the site - are as resources for people to use, rather than themselves the interpretation. I make them for my work, and share them in the hope someone else might find them useful. progressivegeographies.com/resources/fo...
Foucault’s Revised Texts
Foucault did not continually revise his earlier texts in the way some other authors do. But some of his books and articles do exist in different versions. This is not always fully recognised, and s…
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 13h
And Edward Baring's article, which I mention, has a detailed discussion of Derrida's comment about anticolonial struggles in 1963, which he replaces in 1967.

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 13h
Well, there is a bit about that in the post. I think it's interesting that in 1967 Derrida adds things to integrate this analysis into his wider project, particularly about the metaphysics of presence and the spelling of différance with an 'a'. But I am approaching this from my interest in Foucault.

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 13h
This is a followup to Sunday's post - "Foucault and his Critics – two minor notes on his exchanges with Jacques Derrida and J.M. Pelorson" progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/08/f...
Foucault and his Critics – two minor notes on his exchanges with Jacques Derrida and J.M. Pelorson
Derrida, “A propos de «Cogito et histoire de la folie»” Pelorson, “Michel Foucault et l’Espagne” “Lettre de M. Michel Foucault” Two small things I’ve found or noticed recently which she…
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 13h
The differences between the article and book versions of Jacques Derrida’s “Cogito and the History of Madness”
progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/09/t...
The differences between the article and book versions of Jacques Derrida’s “Cogito and the History of Madness”
Derrida, “Cogito et histoire de la folie” Derrida, “A propos de «Cogito et histoire de la folie»” Derrida, L’écriture et la différence The cover pages of the 1963 article, the 1964 addendum, and th…
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 14h
A followup - a detailed comparison of the differences between the article and book versions of Jacques Derrida’s “Cogito and the History of Madness” progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/09/t...
The differences between the article and book versions of Jacques Derrida’s “Cogito and the History of Madness”
Derrida, “Cogito et histoire de la folie” Derrida, “A propos de «Cogito et histoire de la folie»” Derrida, L’écriture et la différence The cover pages of the 1963 article, the 1964 addendum, and th…
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 1d
Foucault and his Critics – two minor notes on his exchanges with Jacques Derrida and J.M. Pelorson progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/08/f...
Foucault and his Critics – two minor notes on his exchanges with Jacques Derrida and J.M. Pelorson
Derrida, “A propos de «Cogito et histoire de la folie»” Pelorson, “Michel Foucault et l’Espagne” “Lettre de M. Michel Foucault” Two small things I’ve found or noticed recently which she…
progressivegeographies.com

Reposted by Dave O’Brien

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 2d
Patricia Daley and Ian Klinke, Human Geography: A Very Short Introduction - @academic.oup.com, November 2025
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
I've shared the book details before. There is now a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social discussion with Caleb Zakarin
newbooksnetwork.com/patricia-dal...
global.oup.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 3d
Brahim El Guabli, Desert Imaginations: A History of Saharanism and Its Radical Consequences - @ucpress.bsky.social, November 2025
www.ucpress.edu/books/desert...
@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social discussion with Ibrahim Fawzy
newbooksnetwork.com/desert-imagi...
Desert Imaginations by Brahim El Guabli - Paper
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
www.ucpress.edu

Reposted by Stuart Elden

davidharvey.org
David Harvey @davidharvey.org · 4d
www.versobooks.com/products/337...
The Story of Capital
For decades, David Harvey has been teaching Marx's work, particularly Capital, to great acclaim. He has analysed chapter by chapter - sometimes line-by-line - Marx's three volumes and the Grundrisse. ...
www.versobooks.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 4d
Lasse Thomassen, Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory - @edinburghup.bsky.social, January 2026
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-derrida...
Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory
Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory
edinburghuniversitypress.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 4d
The Arguments journal which Axelos helped run had links with Praxis - progressivegeographies.com/wp-content/u...
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 4d
Interesting piece. I don’t know more about these events but the book and archive linked here look interesting. I don’t think that is Kostas Axelos with Eugen Fink in the photograph though, though it’s likely Axelos would have attended…

Reposted by Stuart Elden

morton.bsky.social
Adam David Morton @morton.bsky.social · 5d
Does anybody know more about the intellectual circle of the Praxis, or Korčula Summer School, a forum for critical, non-dogmatic Marxism in Yugoslavia, where figures such as Henri Lefebvre, alongside Herbert Marcuse, Ernst Bloch, and Lucien Goldmann were involved?
@stuartelden.bsky.social
Marx on the beach: the forgotten story of Yugoslavia’s rebel communist summer school
Blending beachside holiday with intellectual freedom, the Korčula summer school provided sun and socialist comradeship
www.new-east-archive.org

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 5d
www.e-ir.info/2026/02/01/i...
Interview - Shirin M. Rai at E-IR
Interview - Shirin M. Rai
Shirin Rai reflects on feminist political economy, social reproduction, and climate change, tracing how capitalism and gendered labour shape inequality and everyday life.
www.e-ir.info

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 5d
Omer Aijazi, Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir - @pennpress.bsky.social, June 2024
www.pennpress.org/978151282360...
Atmospheric Violence – Penn Press
Atmospheric Violence grapples with the afterlife of environmental disasters and armed conflict and examines how people attempt to flourish despite and alongs...
www.pennpress.org

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 6d
Adrian Paul Martin and Patrick ffrench both helpfully commented that Pascal Bonitzer’s presentation to this seminar was also published, so I've updated the piece with that reference too. progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/01/r...
Roland Barthes’s Seminar on the Metaphor of the Labyrinth, and the presentations by Marcel Detienne, Gilles Deleuze and Pierre Rosenstiehl
In 1978-79 Roland Barthes held a seminar at the Collège de France on “The Metaphor of the Labyrinth”. It was another spatial theme, after his discussion of territory and territoriality in Comm…
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 6d
I continue this theme in the next piece in this series: Roland Barthes’s Seminar on the Metaphor of the Labyrinth, and the presentations by Marcel Detienne, Gilles Deleuze and Pierre Rosenstiehl
progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/01/r...
Roland Barthes’s Seminar on the Metaphor of the Labyrinth, and the presentations by Marcel Detienne, Gilles Deleuze and Pierre Rosenstiehl
In 1978-79 Roland Barthes held a seminar at the Collège de France on “The Metaphor of the Labyrinth”. It was another spatial theme, after his discussion of territory and territoriality in Comm…
progressivegeographies.com

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Stuart Elden

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 6d
Matthew Perkins-McVey, Intoxicated Ways of Knowing: The Untold Story of Intoxicants and the Biological Subject in Nineteenth-Century Germany - @uchicagopress.bsky.social, February 2026 press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Intoxicated Ways of Knowing
Argues that intoxication was fundamental to German physiological, psychological, and psychiatric research during the nineteenth century.   Intoxicating substances can be found lurking in every corner ...
press.uchicago.edu

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 7d
Nick Srnicek, Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI – @politybooks.bsky.social October 2025 www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI
Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI, Since the emergence of ChatGPT, generative AI has been heralded as a technology poised to revolutionize our world
www.politybooks.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 8d
A sequel, in part, to "Roland Barthes and the Question of Territory – Animals, Spaces and Sound" progressivegeographies.com/2026/01/25/r...
Roland Barthes and the Question of Territory – Animals, Spaces and Sound
Roland Barthes, Comment vivre ensemble Roland Barthes, How to Live Together Roland Barthes only taught at the Collège de France for a short period, from the 1976-77 academic year until shortly befo…
progressivegeographies.com

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 8d
Roland Barthes’s Seminar on the Metaphor of the Labyrinth, and the presentations by Marcel Detienne, Gilles Deleuze and Pierre Rosenstiehl progressivegeographies.com/2026/02/01/r...
Roland Barthes’s Seminar on the Metaphor of the Labyrinth, and the presentations by Marcel Detienne, Gilles Deleuze and Pierre Rosenstiehl
In 1978-79 Roland Barthes held a seminar at the Collège de France on “The Metaphor of the Labyrinth”. It was another spatial theme, after his discussion of territory and territoriality in Comm…
progressivegeographies.com

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 9d
Sara B. Pritchard, Transforming Night: The History and Science of Light Pollution - University of Washington Press, July 2026
uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...
Transforming Night
Who owns the night—and what is lost as we flood it with light, worldwide?Darkness has become legible—and contested. Blending archival narrative with on-t...
uwapress.uw.edu

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 10d
Cambridge Graduate Conference in Political Thought and Intellectual History - 24 June 2026 (registration and call for papers)
www.hist.cam.ac.uk/ptih-graduat...
page 1 of the conference call - details in the link page 2 of the conference call - details in the link

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 10d
Roger Luckhurst, Graveyards: A History of Living with the Dead - @princetonupress.bsky.social, October 2025
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Graveyards
From the author of Gothic, a marvelously illustrated cultural history of graves and graveyards, from the earliest known burial sites to today’s green burials
press.princeton.edu

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 11d
When I was told I needed open heart surgery, I was terrified. My wife was thrilled: it meant that they could fix it. She was right, of course. It was a big deal, but I made it through. Sending positive thoughts to you and your child - the NHS is remarkable.

Reposted by Martin Paul Eve

stuartelden.bsky.social
Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 11d
Peter Garnsey, Rethinking Capital Punishment: The Pre-History of the Abolition of the Death Penalty - @universitypress.cambridge.org, April 2026
www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...
Rethinking Capital Punishment
Cambridge Core - History of Ideas and Intellectual History - Rethinking Capital Punishment
www.cambridge.org