Kennan Ferguson
{{short description|American political theorist|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = American Philosophy
|era = 21st-century philosophy
|image =
|caption =
|name = Kennan Ferguson
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1968|9|28|mf=y}}
|birth_place = Thousand Oaks, California
|alma_mater=Amherst College University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
|school_tradition = Continental philosophy
|main_interests = Political theory, philosophy of the everyday, William James, pluralism
}}
Kennan Ferguson (born September 28, 1968) is an American political theorist who writes on contemporary issues concerning pluralism and the quotidian. He is the Director of The Center for 21st Century Studies at The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee,{{cite web|title=21st Century Studies: Kennan Ferguson|url=https://www4.uwm.edu/c21/pages/about/staff/kennan.html|website=University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee|accessdate=23 March 2017}} and co-editor of the academic political philosophy journal Theory and Event.{{cite web|title=Theory & Event|url=https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/guidelines.html|website=JHU Press|accessdate=23 March 2017}}
Research
=The Politics of Everyday Life=
The central focus of Ferguson's work has been to democratize political philosophy by locating it in the practices of people. He identifies the political components of such diverse everyday aspects of life as judgment, aesthetics, and the family. He holds that political philosophy should emerge from the actual practices of people, rather than being a set of abstract systems which they should be forced to follow. In his investigations of the role of aesthetic judgment, pets, silence, and cookbooks in people's lives, he shows how love, sensibility, and the ontic overlap with authority, force, and political identity.
=Pluralism=
Ferguson celebrates aspects of the political philosophy of pluralism, but not as it is commonly understood in political history. He refers to William James as the founder of political pluralism, but notes the “descent of pluralism” in the 20th Century from a prescriptive aspiration to a descriptive problem.{{cite journal|last1=Boffetti|first1=Jason|title=Pluralism's Forgotten Father - William James: Politics in the Pluriverse|journal= The Review of Politics|volume=70|issue=3|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/div-classtitlepluralismandaposs-forgotten-father-fergusonkennan-william-james-politics-in-the-pluriverse-lanham-maryland-rowman-and-littlefield-2007-pp-xxviii-110-2495-paperdiv/57D435AEFB9D9E9BBFBF67F98B17135B |accessdate=23 March 2017|pages=492–495|doi=10.1017/S0034670508000624|date=1 July 2008|s2cid=143842094}}
=Political Science=
In 2017, Ferguson criticized the discipline of political science in the United States for its "institutionally naturalized" exclusion of Native American scholars, perspectives, texts, and issues.{{Cite journal|last=Ferguson|first=Kennan|title=Why Does Political Science Hate American Indians?|journal=Perspectives on Politics|volume=14|issue=4|pages=1029–1038|doi=10.1017/S1537592716002905|issn=1537-5927|year=2016|doi-access=free}} In response, the Native legal theorist David E. Wilkins responded that he sees "nothing on the horizon to indicate that there will be any substantive alterations in the intellectual pursuits of most political scientists anytime soon."{{Cite journal|last=Wilkins|first=David E.|title=Absence Does Not Make the Indigenous Political Heart Grow Fonder|journal=Perspectives on Politics|volume=14|issue=4|pages=1048–1049|doi=10.1017/S1537592716002954|issn=1537-5927|year=2016|doi-access=free}}
Criticism
The political theorist Jodi Dean has argued that Ferguson's approach to politics is "depoliticizing and accommodationist." For Dean, Ferguson's rejection of normative unity as a goal makes politics impossible, in that political actors can rarely unite against exploitation and oppression.{{cite journal | title = Critical Exchange All in the family: On community and incommensurability| journal = Contemporary Political Theory | date = 2014 | first = Jodi | last = Dean | volume = 13| issue = 3 | pages = 307–316 | doi = 10.1057/cpt.2014.9 | s2cid = 144545263 | url = http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=648150 }}
Books
=as author=
- {{cite book | title = The Politics of Judgment: Aesthetics, Identity, and Political Theory | publisher = Lexington Publishers | location = Lanham, Maryland| year = 2007 | isbn = 9780739120873 }} (Reissue of 1999 book.)
- {{cite book | title = William James: Politics in the Pluriverse | publisher = Rowman and Littlefield| location = Lanham, MD | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-1461647188 }}{{cite web|title=POLITICS IN THE PLURIVERSE. By Kennan Ferguson|url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/13740722/politics-in-the-pluriverse-by-kennan-ferguson|website=Yumpu|accessdate=23 March 2017}}{{cite journal|last1=Kaufman-Osborn|first1=Timothy V.|title=Book in Review: William James: Politics in the Pluriverse, by Kennan Ferguson|journal=Political Theory|volume=36|issue=2|pages=336–338|language=en|doi=10.1177/0090591707312461|date=1 April 2008|s2cid=144202209}}
- {{cite book | title = All in the Family: On Community and Incommensurability | publisher = Duke University Press | location = Durham, North Carolina | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780822351900}}{{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Karin|title=Review of All in the Family: On Community and Incommensurability|url=http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/all-in-the-family-on-community-and-incommensurability/|website=University of Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|accessdate=23 March 2017|date=18 September 2012}}
=as co-editor=
- {{cite book | title = The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, volumes 1 - 8 | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | location = New York, New York | year = 2014 | isbn = 9781405191296 }} – with Michael Gibbons (Editor-in-Chief), Diana Coole, and Elizabeth Ellis
- {{cite book | title = After Capitalism: Horizons of Finance, Culture, and Citizenship | publisher = Rutgers University Press | location = New Brunswick, New Jersey | year = 2016 | isbn = 9780813584263 }} – with Patrice Petro
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X4mn8lkAAAAJ&hl=en Kennan Ferguson at Google Scholar]
- [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/div-classtitlewhy-does-political-science-hate-american-indiansdiv/AC98DB3D5F1DCB606C9535E378E082A4 Why Does Political Science Hate American Indians?]. Cambridge University Press.
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Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Category:University of South Florida faculty
Category:People from Thousand Oaks, California
Category:Amherst College alumni