Theoretical Imagination and Policy Interventions

Abstract

In this article I examine different aspects of intellectual work and political practice, which question the simplistic idea that knowledge exists outside of (either prior or subsequent to) political practice.  Based on Bonaventura de Sousa Santos, the article emphasizes the situatedness of knowledge and as such, its ethical-political markings.  It has been assumed that this situatedness of intellectual work precludes an engagement with the political by some authors that work within what I call a hermeneutics of hope.  In response to this notion, I consider it essential to return to the gramscian suggestion to maintain a "pessimism of the intellect, [and an] optimism of the will" in order to trace the relationship between theoretical imagination and political interventions beyond the idealization and decontextualization that takes place in the name of privileged moral or epistemic subjects.  Thus, building on Foucault, Said, and Hall, I show the political relevance of producing specific and contextual theory that is capable of facing power.