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cover of episode Mark Neocleous, "Pacification: Social War and the Power of Police" (Verso, 2025)

Mark Neocleous, "Pacification: Social War and the Power of Police" (Verso, 2025)

2025/3/18
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New Books in Critical Theory

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马克·尼奥克利乌斯
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马克·尼奥克利乌斯:我的新书探讨了‘平静化’的概念,它代表着披着和平外衣的社会战争。‘平静化’不仅旨在对抗对资本主义剥削、剥夺和流离失所的抵抗,还旨在通过构建社会制度和建筑环境来阻止这种抵抗的出现。这是一个全面的过程,国家通过社会政策、象征性实践和强制性行动来制造合作或至少顺从的个体。然而,‘平静化’从未成功地掩盖资本主义社会关系的对抗性本质,也从未完全成功地对抗或阻止抵抗的出现,因此成为一场永无止境的和平社会战争。我试图论证,批判理论需要‘平静化’的概念来理解当代资本主义世界、资本主义的起源以及资本主义的维持。官方文献和反叛乱理论文献经常将警察和战争的概念混为一谈,学术界应该打破这种二分法。反叛乱思想家在谈论发生在各种场所的战争时,揭示了社会秩序的本质,而主流社会科学家往往忽略或回避这一点。‘平静化’是一个统一的秩序构建过程,其历史可以追溯到罗马时期,并在资本主义发展初期受到广泛关注。‘反叛乱’是一个相对较新的概念,其早期文献大量依赖于‘平静化’的概念。反叛乱文献实质上是平静化文献,本书将反叛乱的概念纳入平静化的概念中。本书对马克思主义和马克思主义国家理论做出了贡献,因为它关注了强制手段在资本积累中的作用。我将‘平静化’作为理解资本主义构成、反叛乱和现代社会战争的关键概念。‘社会战争’的概念应该成为马克思主义思想中的一个重要概念,因为它比‘内战’的概念更广泛、更有用。‘社会战争’的概念涵盖了各种形式的战争,包括那些无法轻易归入‘内战’概念的战争。资本主义社会表面上是和平的,但实际上充满了各种社会战争。我们需要将各种社会战争与阶级战争联系起来。即使在资本主义高度发达的社会,暴力仍然是资本主义再生产的重要组成部分。对市场的内在运作的抵抗会被视为叛乱,而国家权力的一部分工作就是对抗这种叛乱。现代国家是为了控制阶级冲突而产生的,而‘平静化’的概念和论述也由此产生。“stasis”的概念将公民置于叛乱者的位置,而现代政治理论中“stasis”概念的消失表明了“平静化”、现代国家的诞生和资本主义兴起之间的关系。现代政治思想中对内战的否定与对和平的肯定之间存在张力,而国家却不断宣布各种社会战争。安全产业利用人们对死亡的恐惧来证明“平静化”实践的合理性,这些实践使人们对现状的抵抗变得不可想象。“平静化”是一个生产性的过程,它不仅在于摧毁敌对群体或人口,还在于创造新的社会环境,以减少资本主义生产的摩擦和脆弱性。反叛乱理论继承并发展了“平静化”的生产性原则,旨在创造一个新的、可持续的社会秩序。“清除、控制、建设”的口号反映了“平静化”的生产性,即通过建设新的社会环境来防止叛乱的再次出现。“平静化”的“建设”有时指字面上的建设,有时指重建与其他社会警察机构的关系。“围堵”策略揭示了资本主义社会中社会冲突的“平静化”。“围堵”是一种警察策略,它将人群围困在特定区域,以控制示威活动。债务有助于资本主义社会中社会冲突的“平静化”。 访谈者:马克·尼奥克利乌斯对警务、安全和战争进行了激进批判,他的新书探讨了“和平意识形态下的社会战争”—— 平静化。平静化旨在对抗对资本主义剥削、剥夺和流离失所的抵抗,并通过构建社会制度和建筑环境来阻止这种抵抗的出现。平静化是一个全面的过程,国家通过社会政策、象征性实践和强制性行动来制造合作或至少顺从的个体;但它从未成功地掩盖资本主义社会关系的对抗性本质,也从未完全成功地对抗或阻止抵抗的出现,因此成为一场永无止境的和平社会战争。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Mark Neocleous discusses the inspiration and development of his book 'Pacification', focusing on the theory of pacification as social warfare masked as peace. He explores the intersection of war, police, and the fabrication of social order.
  • Neocleous began contemplating pacification over 15 years ago.
  • His critique of security led to exploring pacification as a concept.
  • Pacification connects war and police in fabricating social order.

Shownotes Transcript

Today I talked to Mark Neocleous about his new book Pacification: Social War and the Power of Police) (Verso, 2025).

For more than two decades, Neocleous has been a pioneer in the radical critique of policing, security, and warfare. Today we will discuss his newest work on the theory and practice of pacification, which, he argues, is “social warfare carried out through the ideology of peace.” Pacification not only aims to counter resistance to capitalist exploitation, dispossession, and displacement, but it aims to prevent such resistance from emerging in the first place by constructing social institutions and the built environment. Pacification is a totalizing process by which states deploy social policies, symbolic practices, and coercive operations in order to produce cooperative – or at least acquiescent – subjects. However, pacification never succeeds in obscuring the antagonistic nature of capitalist social relations. Consequently, pacification becomes an endless social war for peace.

Mark Neocleous is Professor of the Critique of Political Economy at Brunel University in London. His previous books include A Critical Theory of Police Power (reissued by Verso in 2021), The Politics of Immunity (Verso, 2022), and *War Power, Police Power *(Edinburgh 2014). As a member of the Anti-Security Collective, he co-authored the Security Abolition Manifesto, which is available at anti-security.org. 

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