Jacques Ranciere, Moments Politiques ***

As a collection of "occasional pieces" (newspaper articles, magazine interviews, radio broadcasts), this book feels fragmented, without clear, solid argumentation. I was able to construct an impression of Ranciere's views from isolated tidbits but I don't feel at all confident that it's an accurate impression.

The theme that resonated most with me is how the categories we use to classify people -- immigrants, citizens, working class, and so on -- arise as part of a problem statement instead of being naturalistic, and that frequently all sides in a political debate implicitly agree to the classifications. (Ranciere refers to this as "consensus," even when parties disagree violently about how to address the problem.)

I was marked in my youth by Satrean existentialism, and there received the impression that every identity is an imprisonment in a role. ("Politics and Identity")

Ranciere indulges in plenty of Continental philosophical jargon ("an activist as a subject faithful to collective decision, who works as a member of a kind of collective interiority"). However, his ideas frequently come through clearly; I highlighted numerous aphorisms throughout the book.