Yasmin Afshar | Associate Postgraduate

Critical Thinking in the Plural. Conceptual Approaches in Research in the Social Sciences
Centre Marc Bloch, Friedrichstraße 191, D-10117 Berlin
Email: yasmin.afshar  ( at )  cmb.hu-berlin.de Tel: +49(0) 30 / 20 93 70700

Home Institution : Institut für Philosophie, Humboldt-Universität | Position : PhD candidate | Disciplines : Philosophy |

Biography

Yasmin Afshar is a PhD candidate in Social Philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rahel Jaeggi and founded by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Since 2019, she is an associate doctoral student at the Marc Bloch Center. In Brazil, Yasmin holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo. Her doctoral research focuses on social antagonism in Theodor W. Adorno’s social theory.

Researchtopic

My thesis investigates the concept of antagonism in the sociological writings of Theodor W. Adorno, taking as its interpretative thread the argument developed in the article Anmerkungen zum sozialen Konflikt heute (1968), co-authored with sociologist Ursula Jaerisch. This text, rarely discussed in the specialized literature, articulates the recognition of the persistent antagonistic structure of postwar society and its tendency toward social disintegration (which may take the form of fascism, among others). I thus intend both to fill a gap in Adorno's studies by inserting his critical position into the philosophical and sociological debate on social antagonisms, and to contribute to a self-reflexive theory of contemporary configurations of social conflicts - which take into account both their emancipatory potentiality and their fascist metamorphosis. The political question that motivates my research can be summarized as follows: how can the false integration of liberal democracy acquire fascist forms of sociability?

Title of thesis
Displacements of negativity: Social Antagonism in Theodor W. Adorno
Summary of thesis

This research aims to investigate Theodor W. Adorno's conception of social antagonism. My starting point is the analysis of sociological texts from the second half of the 1960s, in particular those dealing with the so-called sociology of conflict. In these texts, Adorno criticizes both the elevation of conflict to an invariant of social life, and the idea that class struggle necessarily leads to emancipation. In this way, the generalization of conflict as a crucial element of sociability is called into question and its abolition is presupposed for the true reconciliation of society. I intend, finally, to draw the consequences of this problematic for the current debate about radical democracy and the struggle for rights within liberal democracy.

Institution of thesis
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Supervisor
Frau Prof. Rahel Jaeggi/ Prof. Dr. Vladimir Safatle
Organisation of Events

Mar 2022: Penser à partir de ruines: Dialectique et politique dans l’idéalisme allemand et la théorie critique
Université Paris 1 - Sorbonne

Nov. 2021: “Wer sagt, er sei glücklich, lügt” Kritische Theorie in Bruchstücken: 70 Jahre Minima Moralia
CMB

Juni 2021: Junges Forum: Masse und Individuum in der kapitalischen Moderne
CMB

Social Antagonism in Theodor W. Adorno

Dazu ist die Gefahr des Neonazismus in Deutschland viel zu akut“. Adorno, 1968 und die unterlassene Kritik an das Godesberger Programm



Yasmin Afshar

ISBN: 9783503206926

"Anmerkungen zur primären Erfahrung des Sozialen" in Unversöhnlichkeiten Einübungen in Adornos Minima Moralia



Yasmin Afshar , Pierre Buhlmann, Tobias Nikolaus Klass, Philipp Nolz


Publications
  • AFSHAR, Y. "O neomalthusianismo de Jair Bolsonaro". Jacobin Brasil, 2022.
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. "Notas sobre o conflito social hoje. A partir de dois seminários" (Translation and Presentation). Cadernos de Filosofia Alemã, São Paulo, 2021. 
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. & FRANCO, F. et al: “O sujeito e a ordem do mercado: gênese teórica do neoliberalismo”. In: SAFATLE, V. & SILVA JUNIOR, N. & DUNKER, C. (Orgs.) Neoliberalismo como gestão do sofrimento psíquico. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2021.
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. Preface to the Brazilian edition of Grégoire Chamayou's The ungouvernable society. São Paulo: Editora Ubu, 2020.
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. “Governing through conflict. On Adorno’s critique of postwar Sociology”. In: Constellations, New York, 2020.
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. “Consenso e crise. Adorno e a ideologia da integração no pós-guerra alemão”. Dissonância: Revista de teoria crítica, Campinas, 2020.
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. & FIDELIS, M. “Teoria Crítica e Movimento de Protesto. Entrevista com Theodor W. Adorno” (Translation and Presentation). Dissonância: Revista de teoria crítica, Campinas, 2020.
     
  • AFSHAR, Y. & FRANCO, F. et al: “Paranóia: Clínica e crítica”. In: SAFATLE, V. & SILVA JUNIOR, N. & DUNKER, C. (Orgs.). Patologias do social. Arqueologias do sofrimento psíquico. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2018.