Agonism (from Greek ἀγών agon , "struggle") is a political and social theory that emphasizes the potentially positive aspects of certain forms of conflict. It accepts a permanent place for such conflict in the political sphere, but seeks to show how individuals might accept and channel this conflict positively. Agonists are especially concerned with debates about democracy , and the role that conflict plays in different conceptions of it. The agonistic tradition to democracy is often referred to as agonistic pluralism . A related political concept is that of countervailing power . Beyond the realm of the political, agonistic frameworks have similarly been utilized in broader cultural critiques of hegemony and domination, as well as in literary and science fiction.
54-638: 6, see text The blue monkey or diademed monkey ( Cercopithecus mitis ) is a species of Old World monkey native to Central and East Africa , ranging from the upper Congo River basin east to the East African Rift and south to northern Angola and Zambia . It sometimes includes Sykes' , silver , and golden monkeys as subspecies . Several subspecies are recognised: At times, some of these have been regarded as full species, and additional subspecies have been considered valid, while others are not recognized by all authorities. Despite its name,
108-538: A group are grooming and playing. Relationships between group members vary: infants interact most frequently with their peers and adult or juvenile females and are rarely seen near adult males. Alloparenting is common among blue monkeys. The most common infant handlers are juvenile females, and usually one infant is carried by a number of alloparents. One hypothesis is that this allows the infant to learn to socialise at an early stage in life. Interesting female-female relationships exist among blue monkeys. This relationship
162-416: A legitimate uniform consensus, and power imbalances can never truly be removed from the public sphere, then one must accept the inevitability of conflict in the political realm. Rather than attempting to wholly eliminate conflict in the political, which agonistic pluralists maintain is conceptually impossible, agonistic pluralism is the model of democracy which attempts to mobilize these passions "towards
216-478: A perpetual dynamic of conflict and crisis, with modernization at a standstill. While this dialectic of development and destruction has been analysed from political and economic perspectives, Agon Culture offers an analysis of the human condition through an examination of the way in which the cultural ideology of competition operates as a mode of rationality that underpins the order of domination." The science fiction novel Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder depicts
270-420: A result, blue monkey groups usually consist of one male with several females and infants, giving rise to matrilinear societies. Occasionally, solitary males are observed, which are probably transient, having left their natal group in search of a new group. In these female-bonded societies, only 5–15% of monkeys' activity budget is occupied by social interactions and the most common social interactions within
324-474: A sign of imperfection, indicate that democracy is alive and inhabited by pluralism.” Agonism is not simply the undifferentiated celebration of antagonism : Agonism implies a deep respect and concern for the other; indeed, the Greek agon refers most directly to an athletic contest oriented not merely toward victory or defeat, but emphasizing the importance of the struggle itself—a struggle that cannot exist without
378-457: A sister group of Old World monkeys in the catarrhines , which are a sister group of New World monkeys. Therefore, cladistically , apes, catarrhines and related contemporary extinct groups, such as Parapithecidae , are monkeys as well, for any consistent definition of "monkey". "Old World monkey" may also legitimately be taken to be meant to include all the catarrhines, including apes and extinct species such as Aegyptopithecus , in which case
432-422: A successful agonistic pluralism requires that all parties share commitments to democratic ideals such as "equality" and "liberty," although the contents of these normative conceptions can vary greatly across groups. Yet, it is argued by critics of agonistic pluralism that, on the one hand, if parties share the same ethico-political principles, then a consensus need not be prohibited through ineradicable conflict. On
486-479: A threat by foresters, since it sometimes strips bark from exotic trees in a search for food or moisture. It is also hunted for bushmeat and as payback for crop-raiding. Blue monkeys eat fruits, figs, insects, leaves, twigs, and flowers. "They are primarily frugivores, with 50% of their diet consisting of fruit, with leaves or insects as their main source of protein, with the rest of the diet being made up of seeds, flowers, and fungi. They rarely eat vertebrates. They eat
540-416: A tubular ectotympanic (ear bone), and eight, not twelve, premolars in catarrhines, giving them a dental formula of: 2.1.2.3 2.1.2.3 Several Old World monkeys have anatomical oddities. For example, the colobus monkeys have stubs for thumbs to assist with their arboreal movement, the proboscis monkey has an extraordinary nose, while the snub-nosed monkeys have almost no nose at all. The penis of
594-454: A variety of plants, but concentrate on a few species, which means their population density is generally dependent on plant species' richness and diversity". Cercopithecus mitis joins with the C. ascanius ( red-tailed monkey ) for extra protection. Its interactions with red-tailed monkeys include interspecies grooming. Their social system is mainly female because the males leave once they are mature. The males have little to no interaction with
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#1733092714566648-553: A water source. Gestation in the Old World monkeys lasts between five and seven months. Births are usually single, although, as with humans, twins occur occasionally. The young are born relatively well-developed, and are able to cling onto their mother's fur with their hands from birth. Compared with most other mammals, they take a long time to reach sexual maturity, with four to six years being typical of most species. In most species, daughters remain with their mothers for life, so that
702-551: A world without points of stabilization; it is to affirm the reality of perpetual contest, even within an ordered setting, and to identify the affirmative dimension of contestation." In her book Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics , she develops this notion through critiques of consensual conceptions of democracy. Arguing that every political settlement engenders remainders to which it cannot fully do justice, she draws on Nietzsche and Arendt , among others, to bring out
756-429: Is polygynous , with a corresponding sexual dimorphism in size, as the males are the substantially larger sex. Females normally give birth every two years, during the onset of the warm, rainy season; gestation is around five months, and the infants are born with fur and with their eyes open. Group sizes range from 10 to 40, containing only a single adult male. It is often found in groups with other species of monkeys such as
810-466: Is believed to be shaped by their feeding ecology, which, in turn, is shaped by between-group and within-group competition. Blue monkey females exhibit strong, aggressive competition between groups and between other species because of their territorial character, but milder though more frequent competition within groups. Though earlier beliefs were that blue monkeys are not territorial, more current extended research shows that earlier researchers misinterpreted
864-402: Is built on the distinction of "us" and "them." Based on this, agonists also believe in "a tragic notion of the world without hope of final redemption from suffering and strife," which cannot find a lasting political solution for all conflicts. Instead, agonists see conflict as a political good. For example, Mouffe argues that "In a democratic polity, conflicts and confrontations, far from being
918-498: Is primarily framed as an agonistic alternative to Habermasian models of deliberative democracy . Theorists of agonistic pluralism, including post-modernist thinkers Chantal Mouffe , Ernesto Laclau , and William E. Connolly , reject the Habermasian notion of a rational universal consensus that can be reached through deliberation alone. In order for a singular rational consensus to be reached, this would require that all parties endorse
972-410: Is rarely acknowledged." For Theodor Adorno , agonism is also about the " theodicy of conflict" where opponents "want to annihilate one another... to enter the agon, each the mortal enemy of each." Agonism forms part of the instituted social order where society "produces and reproduces itself precisely from the interconnection of the antagonistic interests of its members." Adorno also sees agonism as
1026-650: Is the talapoin , with a head and body 34–37 centimetres (13–15 in) in length, and weighing between 0.7 and 1.3 kilograms (1.5 and 2.9 lb). The largest is the male mandrill, around 70 centimetres (28 in) in length, and weighing up to 50 kilograms (110 lb) Old World monkeys have a variety of facial features; some have snouts , some are flat-nosed, and many exhibit coloration. Most have tails, but they are not prehensile . Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting numerous environments: tropical rain forests , savannas , shrublands , and mountainous terrain. They inhabited much of Europe in
1080-670: The Barbary macaques of Gibraltar . Most Old World monkeys are at least partially omnivorous , but all prefer plant matter, which forms the bulk of their diet. Leaf monkeys are the most vegetarian, subsisting primarily on leaves, and eating only a small number of insects, while the other species are highly opportunistic, primarily eating fruit, but also consuming almost any food items available, such as flowers, leaves, bulbs and rhizomes , insects, snails, and even small vertebrates. The Barbary macaque 's diet consists mostly of leaves and roots, though it will also eat insects and uses cedar trees as
1134-626: The Cercopithecinae , which are mainly African, but include the diverse genus of macaques , which are Asian and North African, and the Colobinae , which includes most of the Asian genera, but also the African colobus monkeys. The Linnaean classification beginning with the superfamily is: The distinction between apes and monkeys is complicated by the traditional paraphyly of monkeys : Apes emerged as
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#17330927145661188-439: The colobus monkeys , to fully terrestrial forms, such as the baboons. The smallest is the talapoin , with a head and body 34–37 cm in length, and weighing between 0.7 and 1.3 kilograms, while the largest is the male mandrill (the females of the species being significantly smaller), at around 70 cm in length, and weighing up to 50 kilograms. Most Old World monkeys have tails (the family name means "tailed ape"), unlike
1242-680: The family Cercopithecidae ( / ˌ s ɜːr k oʊ p ɪ ˈ θ ɛ s ɪ d iː / ). Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons (genus Papio ), red colobus (genus Piliocolobus ), and macaques (genus Macaca ). Common names for other Old World monkeys include the talapoin , guenon , colobus , douc (douc langur, genus Pygathrix ), vervet , gelada , mangabey (a group of genera), langur , mandrill , drill , surili ( Presbytis ), patas , and proboscis monkey . Phylogenetically, they are more closely related to apes than to New World monkeys , with
1296-520: The red-tailed monkey and various red colobus monkeys. C. mitis males mate with more than one female, but the females only mate with one male. The female attracts males to copulate with her through body language. They breed throughout the year. "The groups can have up to 40 members and the females usually help to care for all of the young, not just their own." Old World monkey Cercopithecinae – 13 genera Colobinae – 10 genera sister: Hominoidea Old World monkeys are primates in
1350-477: The 'other' is no longer seen as an enemy to be destroyed, but somebody with whose ideas we are going to struggle but whose right to defend those ideas we will not put into question." Agonistic pluralists view this conversion of "enemies" into "adversaries" as being fundamental to well-functioning democracies and the only way to properly limit domination. One criticism of agonistic pluralism is that, in its rejection of deliberative democracy, it inadvertently relies on
1404-527: The Old World monkeys and apes diverging from a common ancestor between 25 million and 30 million years ago. This clade , containing the Old World monkeys and the apes, diverged from a common ancestor with the New World monkeys around 45 to 55 million years ago. The individual species of Old World monkey are more closely related to each other than to apes or any other grouping, with a common ancestor around 14 million years ago. The smallest Old World monkey
1458-475: The agon in a more critical sense beyond that of political counter-hegemony. This usage of agonism has been explored at some length by Claudio Colaguori in his book Agon Culture: Competition, Conflict and the Problem of Domination . According to Colaguori, "the agon is literally the arena of competition, the scene of contest, and the locus of adversarial conflict." He continues, writing "The philosophy of agonism affirms
1512-581: The apes, Cercopithecoidea and Aegyptopithecus as well as (under an even more expanded definition) even the Platyrrhini emerged within the Old World monkeys. Historically, monkeys from the "Old World" (Afro-Arabia), somehow drifted to the "New World" some 40 million years ago, forming the "New World monkeys" (platyrrhines). Apes would emerge later within the Afro-Arabia group. Old World monkeys are medium to large in size, and range from arboreal forms, such as
1566-416: The availability of food and other resources. Agonism There are three elements shared by most theorists of agonism: constitutive pluralism, a tragic view of the world, and a belief in the value of conflict. Constitutive pluralism holds that there is no universal measure of adjudicating between conflicting political values. For example, Chantal Mouffe argues, following Carl Schmitt , that politics
1620-415: The basic social group among Old World monkeys is a matrilineal troop. Males leave the group on reaching adolescence, and find a new troop to join. In many species, only a single adult male lives with each group, driving off all rivals, but others are more tolerant, establishing hierarchical relationships between dominant and subordinate males. Group sizes are highly variable, even within species, depending on
1674-411: The blue monkey is not noticeably blue; it has little hair on its face, and this does sometimes give a blue appearance, but it never has the vivid blue appearance of a mandrill , for example. It is mainly olive or grey apart from the face (which is dark with a pale or yellowish patch on the forehead – the "diadem" from which the species derives its common name), the blackish cap, feet, and front legs, and
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1728-439: The emancipatory potential of political contestation and of the disruption of settled practices. Recognizing, on the other hand, that politics involves the imposition of order and stability, she argues that politics can neither be reduced to consensus, nor to pure contestation, but that these are both essential aspects of politics. William E. Connolly is one of the founders of this school of thought in political theory. He promotes
1782-411: The ground infrequently. It is very dependent on humid, shady areas with plenty of water. It eats mainly fruit and leaves, but will take some slower-moving invertebrates. It prefers to live in tall trees, which provide both food and shelter, and is, therefore, like almost all guenons, suffering from the loss of its natural habitat. Where pine plantations replace natural forest, the monkey may be treated as
1836-405: The idea that transcendence, truth, and growth are generated from the outcome of the contest...the concept of agonism is often understood in an affirmative sense as the generative principle of economy, society and even natural ecology and personal growth... The ambivalent character of agonism is that it is often seen as a mode of transcendence, while its instrumental relation to the mode of destruction
1890-431: The ideological entrenchment of global neoliberalism as evidence of how presumed consensus can reinforce hegemony and preclude opposition. The strong influence of Antonio Gramsci in agonistic theory can be seen here, primarily with his theory of cultural hegemony and his claim that any established consensus or norm is reflective of broader structures of power. Thus, for agonistic pluralists, if reason alone cannot yield
1944-477: The limits of reason ultimately reduces the persuasive capacity of their political and social theories, which remain largely reliant on the process of rationalization. Another criticism of agonistic pluralism is its failure to provide a real avenue through which antagonism can be transformed into agonism, or enemies into adversaries. Agonistic pluralists maintain that, in order to mediate antagonism, all parties must share some ethico-political principles. For instance,
1998-526: The male mandrill is crimson and the scrotum is lilac ; the face is also brightly colored. The coloration is more pronounced in dominant males. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting numerous environments: tropical rain forests , savannas , shrublands , and mountainous terrain. They inhabited much of Europe during the Neogene period; today the only survivors in Europe are
2052-404: The mantle, which is brown, olive, or grey depending on the subspecies. Typical sizes range from 50 to 65 cm in length, (not including the tail, which is almost as long as the rest of the animal), with females weighing a little over 4 kg and males up to 8 kg. The blue monkey is found in evergreen forests and montane bamboo forests, and lives largely in the forest canopy, coming to
2106-494: The normalization and naturalization of conflict is used as an ideology to justify various forms of domination and subjugation. The agonistic ideology that has been appropriated by popular culture for example makes use of agonistic themes to celebrate competition as the wellspring of life in such a way as to normalize "a military definition of reality." The critical conception of agonism developed by Colaguori and Adorno emphasizes how aspects of competition can be utilized to reinforce
2160-417: The opponent. Victory through forfeit or default, or over an unworthy opponent, comes up short compared to a defeat at the hands of a worthy opponent—a defeat that still brings honor. An agonistic discourse will therefore be one marked not merely by conflict but just as importantly, by mutual admiration... Bonnie Honig , an advocate of agonism, writes: "to affirm the perpetuity of the contest is not to celebrate
2214-459: The other hand, if individuals do not share the ethico-political principles needed to reach a consensus, then critics argue there is little reason to conceive that antagonism can be reduced into anything less. Under a framework under which there are no shared ethico-political commitments, there is also no normative basis for prohibiting the use of political violence. Finally, critics contend that this lack of common understanding not only problematizes
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2268-653: The past; today, the only survivors in Europe are the Barbary macaques of Gibraltar . Whether they were native to Gibraltar or were brought by humans is unknown. Some Old World monkeys are arboreal , such as the colobus monkeys; others are terrestrial , such as the baboons . Most are at least partially omnivorous , but all prefer plant matter, which forms the bulk of their diets. Most are highly opportunistic, primarily eating fruit, but also consuming almost any food item available, such as flowers, leaves, bulbs and rhizomes , insects, snails, small mammals, and garbage and handouts from humans. Two subfamilies are recognized,
2322-506: The possibility of an "agonistic democracy," where he finds positive ways to engage certain aspects of political conflict. Connolly proposes a positive ethos of engagement, which could be used to debate political differences. Agonism is based on contestation, but in a political space where the discourse is one of respect, rather than violence. Unlike toleration, agonistic respect actively engages adversaries in political contests over meaning and power. Unlike antagonism, it shows respect by admitting
2376-475: The project of domination that is evident in the geopolitics of modernity. Colaguori suggests that a critical conception of agonism can be applied to the study of "numerous forms of social conflict in gender, class and race relations where the competitive mode of interaction prevails in the formation of social hierarchies based on competition as a form of exclusion." Colaguori further states that, "after 100 years of technological progress, human societies are trapped in
2430-408: The promotion of democratic designs." Agonistic pluralists emphasize how the construction of group identities relies on a continuous "other"; this us/them conflict is inherent to politics, and it should be the role of democratic institutions to mitigate such conflicts. The role of agonistic pluralism is to transform antagonistic sentiments into agonistic ones. As Mouffe writes, "this presupposes that
2484-510: The results because social interactions overall are infrequent. Moreover, overall agonism rates in blue monkeys are very low. Within-group conflicts are mild and infrequent because females distance themselves from one another and feed at different sites to avoid competition. Although blue monkeys were believed to be egalitarian, current extended research confirms that linear dominance hierarchy occurs in female blue monkeys, which becomes more apparent when food resources are scarce. The mating system
2538-517: The same fundamental presuppositions of rational consensus. Andrew Knops argues that agonistic pluralists, such as Chantal Mouffe, assert a "single, universal characterization of the political" in their depiction of the political as a realm of ineradicable antagonism and conflict. For Knops, this universalistic description of the political undermines agonistic pluralists' post-structuralist critiques of rational argumentation. Others build on this criticism, arguing that agonists' focus on passions, power, and
2592-448: The same rationalistic, universalistic, and individualistic theoretical frameworks. Furthermore, agonistic pluralists argue that power cannot be relegated solely to the private sphere, and power hierarchies will necessarily be replicated in public deliberative processes. This makes it such that any "consensus" relies on forms of social domination and necessitates the exclusion of certain interests. Many of these agonistic thinkers point to
2646-442: The same starting ethico-political principles. Yet, in multicultural pluralist societies, agonistic pluralists contend that this will never truly be the case, since divergent social identities will create irreconcilable differences between individuals. It is argued that Habermasian models of deliberative democracy are ill-equipped for pluralist societies, since they simply purport new paradigms of liberal democratic theory, which rely on
2700-544: The tailless apes. The tails of Old World monkeys are not prehensile , unlike those of the New World monkeys (platyrrhines). The distinction of catarrhines from platyrrhines depends on the structure of the rhinarium , and the distinction of Old World monkeys from apes depends on dentition (the number of teeth is the same in both, but they are shaped differently). In platyrrhines, the nostrils face sideways, while in catarrhines, they face downward. Other distinctions include both
2754-464: The transformation of antagonism into something else, but it further contradicts the essence of antagonism itself. It is argued that deliberation is constitutive of conflict, insofar as antagonism requires a certain degree of understanding of the "other" and an ability to use shared speech acts to explain points of divergence with opposing parties; this becomes difficult to do under an agonistic framework. Other works have invoked conceptions of agonism and
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#17330927145662808-572: The ultimate contestability of even one's own deepest held commitments. Agonism is a practice of democratic engagement that destabilizes appeals to authoritative identities and fixed universal principles. Connolly's critical challenges to John Rawls 's theory of justice and Jürgen Habermas 's theory on deliberative democracy have spawned a host of new literature in this area. His work Identity\Difference (1991) contains an exhaustive look at positive possibilities via democratic contestation. Agonistic pluralism, also referred to as "agonistic democracy,"
2862-468: The underlying principle in Hegel 's dialectic of history where "dialectics" (i.e., growth through conflict) is the ontology of the wrong state of things. The right state of things would be free of them: "neither a system nor a contradiction." Colaguori reconstructs the concept of the agon to invoke this critical, destructive aspect as a way of extending Adorno's critique of modern domination and to identify how
2916-533: The young. C. mitis is very territorial, so the young males must leave quickly to help themselves become more successful. They challenge the dominant male of another family. If they defeat the dominant male, they take over the leadership of that family, and this offers a place to live, socialization, and food supplies for the young males." C. mitis is said to be nomadic. The blue monkeys live in female- philopatric social systems where females stay in their natal groups, while males disperse once they reach adulthood. As
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