Grounding Critique: Marxism, Concept Formation, and Embodied Social Relations is a congealment of my relations, an archive of my orientations. The titular ground is not simply a relic of foundational ontologies. Rather, it is the ongoing struggle between the gravitational pull of the social world, sedimented as it is through power struggles in history, and the subject’s freedom, will, dignity, creativity, and resistance. Thus, this grounding is individual, transindividual, and collective all at once, and this book is both an expression and a product of the process of this grounding. While the bibliography itself should be read as an acknowledgments, there are some people whose person –not just work, or mind– have been integral to Grounding Critique, and it is a particularly gratifying experience to inscribe their names here as part and parcel of the book.
An earlier version of Grounding Critique was written as my PhD dissertation under Himani Bannerji’s supervision. Himani’s existence in my life began as textual presence. I read her work before meeting her. I started my PhD at York University just so I could work with her. She first became my professor, then my PhD supervisor. That way, the textual presence was appended with administrative categories. However, one of the first lessons I learned from Himani was that her citational authority and our institutional relation were the practico-inert context of our encounter, and that they had to be sublated in order for the actual possibility of learning and knowledge to arise. This meant a shift towards mutual intellectual curiosity, pedagogical solicitude, and living attention. It is through this shift that, for the last decade and more, Himani and I have become real presences for one another. Being-with-her and thinking-with-her make the world anew and generate that rare and exhilarating feeling of recognizing myself as a part of all generations past, present, and future – both as the wreckage of history is piled and hurled before one’s feet, and as the liberation struggles of the world catches in the wings of one’s spirit, as Himani’s beloved Walter Benjamin would have it. I am truly fortunate to continue to be and think with her.
It was about two decades ago, when I was only seventeen, that I went to Cem Eroğul’s office and asked him to help me become a marxist. He was, and remains, one of Turkey’s foremost marxists and orginial thinkers. I am grateful that rather than indoctrinating me with formulaic clichés and platitudes, he said no! Becoming a marxist was not a matter of simple identification, he explained to me. Marx had set a bar for himself to become himself, and I had to meet that bar for myself if I were serious about becoming a marxist. With
Linda Peake is the best collaborator, mentor, and friend one could ask for. In the North American academy, it is hard to meet someone like Linda, who has turned her feminist and anti-racist ethics of care into everyday praxis. Terrell Carver is a belatedly found and cherished kindred thinker. His versions of Marx and Engels are always surprising, dynamic, and fascinating, much like his company and methodological camaraderie. David Fasenfest is the very best editor. His enthusiasm and support for Grounding Critique prevented the undue anxiety often associated with publishing.
Friendship fulfills its concept in Dalia Kandiyoti. Her humour, kindness, and intelligence have been indispensable and grounding for me in moving forward with life and with this project. Athena Colman is my grey-eyed goddess. Feminist philosophy and Frankfurt School come alive in her company. I have been living in thought with her. Sue Ruddick sees the argument I make right in the eye and reflects it back to me in abundance. David McNally and Sue Ferguson are my socialist Toronto. Their friendship and comradeship have been invaluable. Their thinking started me off in this project.
My wonderful friends and comrades replenished my life and intellectual energies as I worked on Grounding Critique: Rebecca Lock. Wiley Sharp. Azim Remani. Donya Ziaee. Eva-Lynn Jagoe. Radhika Mongia. Michael Kuttner. Souvankham Thammavongsa. The late Donald Goellnicht. Adrie Naylor. Emrah Öztürk. Chris Webb. Aziz Güzel. Asha Jeffers. Cansu Dinçer. Elspeth Brown. Pacinthe Mattar. Thy Phu. Michael Tang. Brian Sune Sandbeck. Ratiba Hadj-Moussa. Lina Nasr El Hag Ali. Selmin Kara. Sedef Arat-Koc. Mustafa Koc. Robert Latham. Ebru Ustundag. Nicole Leach. Gülay Kilicaslan. Malissa Phung. Aaron Surty. Tim McCaskell. Richard Fung. Tamara El-Hoss. Ju Hui Judy Han. Jennifer Jihye Chun. Ronald Cummings. Stefan Kipfer. Karen Anderson. Andil Gosine. Raju Das.
The Department of Sociology at Brock University was my institutional base during the preparation of this manuscript. I have been lucky to be surrounded by many generous and brilliant colleagues, as well as curious students. In particular, I am grateful to my following colleagues for their interest in and support of my project: Nancy Cook, Michelle Webber, Margot Francis, Janet Conway,
I thank Nagehan and Ünal Tanyildiz, my parents, for always encouraging and supporting my pursuits in life and in academia. Hien Nguyen and the whole Nguyen family showed great care and support as I worked on this project. Gökbige Tanyildiz, my sister, has the sharpest judicious mind, psychoanalytic insight, and lively humour – all of which have been vital for me to be able to carry out this project.
Vinh Nguyen is the horizon of this project. He is life to which concepts can only approximate. He is love that propels life into its excesses. He is my innermost.
Like all books, Grounding Critique presupposes life. When there is no life, there is no concept formation, embodied social relations, the social, and society. Unfortunately, as I write these acknowledgements, the genocide in Gaza and Palestine is still ceaselessly raging. Palestinians everywhere are trying to reproduce life and liberate themselves and, therefore, the rest of us. All around the globe, students are trying to help them in encampments. And us faculty in Canada, through the Faculty4Palestine networks, have been standing in solidarity with Palestine and its peoples. The world’s one hope lies in the compassion of the oppressed for the oppressed, as Bertolt Brecht said. It is my one hope that by the time the reader reads this book, we will all be jubilantly celebrating a free Palestine and witnessing the punishment of the genocidal fascist regime in our righteous dignity.