·Rahel Süß

 

Research

 

Rahel Süß research and teaching interests include the history of political thought, contemporary democratic theory, and digital democracy. She is particularly interested in the effects of digital technologies on democratic politics, artificial intelligence and democracy, and theories of democratic renewal.

 

 

 

A Political Theory of Digital Democracy

 

Democracy and new digital technologies are twin objects of deep, though ambivalent attachment in the contemporary liberal imagination. What, then, is “digital democracy”? My current research project explores two central questions: (1) How have liberal ideas shaped and limited the way we think of both democracy and digitalisation? (2) What might a radical democratic conception of both terms involve? I begin from the assumption that democracy lives not as a lofty abstraction but through its material forms: and ours is a digital age. In speaking of digital democracy, then, I argue that we must understand each term through the other. Liberals imagine digital technology through their understanding of democracy, and increasingly understand democracy through their encounter with technology. My claim is that when liberals imagine digital technologies as democratic, they obscure forms of power that constitute those technologies, in their ownership, design, and control. Therefore, we must ask the question: How might a radical alternative to liberalism understand both democracy and digitalisation differently, and use the encounter with each to reshape our understanding of both?

 

 

Publications (selection)

 

  •  

 

 

 

Experimental Democracy

 

How can democracy open up to the demands of the future? Liberal democracy cannot uphold the commitment to freedom that it promises. This is a crisis with deep roots in historical injustices. It is also a crisis of legitimacy that requires a fundamental new political imagination. Experimental democracy presents a new paradigm of empowered democracy and develops a framework of future oriented democratic politics for the digital age.

 

 

 

 

Publications (selection)

 

  • Book chapter: “Theorie und Praxis”.  In: Comtesse, Flügel-Martinsen, Martinsen, Nonhoff (eds.) (2019):  Handbuch radikale Demokratietheorie. Suhrkamp.
  • Paper: "Horizontal experimentalism: Rethinking democratic resistance." In: Philosophy & Social Criticism (Online first, 3. 8. 2021. Open Access here).
  • Abstract: Major debates on democratic renewal suggest two ways of eliciting social change: either by strengthening vertical practices of representation or by expanding horizontal forms of participation. The article develops an argument for why there is a need to rethink democratic resistance beyond the vertical–horizontal divide. If contemporary forms of resistance encompass a strategic interplay between vertical and horizontal practices, then an alternative framework is required to capture this logic. Filling this gap, the article introduces the concept of ‘horizontal experimentalism’. Such an idea comprehends an understanding of political means and ends as a continuum and as adjusting each other in an ongoing process of experimental inquiry.

 

 

 

 

The Politics of Provocation

 

Within the liberal tradition of democracy, social conflict is often understood as disagreement and democratic institutions as embodying fair procedures for resolving disagreement. The politics of provocation presents us with a different possibility. Understanding social conflict as conflict over power and resources, it is more attentive to questions of equalizing power between citizens. It develops an argument for why in societies with large inequalities in resources and power, the impulse for greater democracy lies not merely in new inclusive and participatory institutions. Instead, democracy is about  the possibility of provoking conflict and organising collective power in different domains of social life.

 

 

Publications (selection)

 

 

 

 

 

Kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit

 

Die Arbeit mit dem Begriff der „kollektiven Handlungsfähigkeit“ hat einen praktischen, nicht nur theoretischen Sinn: Es geht nicht nur um die Präzisierung und Problematisierung eines Begriffs, sondern um die Verwirklichung einer Möglichkeit zu handeln; darum, diejenigen Potenziale auszumachen, durch die es kollektiven Akteur*innen möglich ist, Brüche und Diskontinuitäten im Common Sense herbeizuführen. Es ist das Begreifen, das mit einem kritisch-subversiven Eingreifen in die Verhältnisse einhergeht. Die Frage, warum trotz der anhaltenden Krisen keine Transformationsprojekte wirkungsmächtig werden, wird auf die Frage „kritischer“ und „subversiver“ politischer Handlungsfähigkeit projiziert. Wie kann diese im Spannungsfeld von Herrschaft und Widerstand genauer begriffen werden? Insbesondere der Begriff einer kollektiven Handlungsfähigkeit wird meist unklar verwendet und bedarf der Präzisierung. Dazu werden drei einschlägige Theorien (Gramsci, Holzkamp und Laclau/Mouffe) befragt

 

 

Publications (selection)

 

  • Book: Kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit. Gramsci – Holzkamp – Laclau/Mouffe. Vorwort von Oliver Marchart. Turia + Kant, Wien, 2. Auflage 2016. PDF here.
  • Edited book: Mark, Heissenberger, Schramm, Sniesko, Süß (ed.), "Uni brennt: Grundsätzliches – Kritisches – Atmosphärisches". Zweite erweiterte Auflage. Turia + Kant, Wien 2010.
  • Book chapter: “Hegemonie und kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit in der Vielfalt gesellschaftlicher Widersprüche. Über die Schwierigkeit eines linken Mosaikprojekts”. In: Hawel, Kalmring (eds.) (2016): Wie lernt das linke Mosaik? Die plurale Linke in Bewegung. VSA.
  • Book chapter: “Denken Hilft”. In: Heissenberger, Mark, Schramm, Sniesko, Süß (eds.) (2016): Uni brennt – Grundsätzliches, Kritisches, Atmosphärisches. Turia + Kant.

 

 

 

​

 

 © 2023 Rahel Süß