Dr. Karsten Schubert

CV

Dr. Karsten Schubert ist wissenschaftlicher Assistent an der Professur für Politische Theorie, Philosophie und Ideengeschichte der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Seine Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen in der zeitgenössischen kritischen politischen Theorie und Sozialphilosophie: Radikale Demokratie, Rechtskritik, Michel Foucault, Biopolitik, queere und schwule Theorie, und Intersektionalität. Gegenwärtig forscht er an der Schnittstelle von radikaler Demokratie und Theorien der Identitätspolitik. Zuvor promovierte er in Philosophie an der Universität Leipzig. Sein Buch "Freiheit als Kritik. Sozialphilosophie nach Foucault" (2018) ist bei transcript erschienen. Texte, Videos und aktuelle Informationen unter www.karstenschubert.net

Publikationen (Auswahl)

• Schubert, Karsten (2018): Freiheit als Kritik. Sozialphilosophie nach Foucault [Freedom as Critique. Social Philosophy After Foucault]. Bielefeld: transcript.

• Schubert, Karsten (2021): Freedom as critique. Foucault beyond anarchism. In: Philosophy & Social Criticism 47 (5), 634–660. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453720917733

• Schubert, Karsten; Schwiertz, Helge (2021): Konstruktivistische Identitätspolitik. Warum Demokratie partikulare Positionierung erfordert [Constructivist identity politics. Why democracy requires particular positioning]. In: Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 31 (4), 565–593. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41358-021-00291-2

• Schubert, Karsten (2020): »Political Correctness« als Sklavenmoral? Zur politischen Theorie der Privilegienkritik [Political Correctness" as slave morality? On the political theory of the critique of privilege]. In: Leviathan 48 (1), 29–51. https://doi.org/10.5771/0340-0425-2020-1-29

• Schubert, Karsten (2022): New Era of Queer Politics? PrEP, Foucauldian Sexual Liberation, and the Overcoming of Homonormativity. In: Body Politics 8 (12/2020), 214–261. http://bodypolitics.de/de/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/BodyPolitics-8-2020-12_Schubert-10.pdf

FRIAS Projekt

A Matter of Elites? Identity Politics Between Democratic Representation and Elite Capture

Identity Politics is key for correcting skewed representation in liberal democracies. However, identity politics risks producing skewed representation itself through elite capture, the taking of identity politics by elites. In this project, I employ radical democratic and constructivist representation theory to differentiate problematic elite capture from democratic representation. I aim to show that identities and preferences of constituencies are not given before representation but constituted through representation, which is why it is impossible to uphold a difference between elite manipulation and true interests. The normative standard for good representation is the empowerment of the constituency's reflexivity about its own identity. Visible and influential representatives are not a problem of elite capture, while problematic elite capture occurs when privileged subgroups dominate identity political projects, such as White bourgeois women in second-wave feminism. Identity political representation is skewed towards elite capture if it is not intersectional and can be called democratic if they effectively counteract their own representational distortions.