History and Poiesis: Rethinking Production in Contemporary Continental Political Theory

Cem Oto

Fiscaoeconomia, 2025, issue 3

Abstract: Poiesis, encompassing artistic and technical creative activities such as making, producing, and bringing forth, has traditionally been linked with history, understood as a posteriori discourse and narrative on what has been produced. However, maintaining a chronological separation between the two is increasingly problematic. This study argues that the question of poetic individuation and becoming — extending beyond art and technique to all forms of revealing that affect the human condition — must be reconsidered. Meanwhile, history, as both a research activity that uncovers the conditions of becoming and as the medium where becoming is exhibited, permeates core areas of political theory. It will be proposed that contemporary transformations — ecological, technological, economic, industrial, and political — have fundamentally reshaped the roles and uses of history and poiesis, exerting a decisive influence on political theory today. These transformations, comparable in impact to the foundational crises of modernity, also affect essential political concepts such as sovereignty, authority, and democracy. Furthermore, the modern framing of nature as an active field of intervention has, in the context of the Anthropocene and its aftermath, evolved into a new stage where not only humans and organic life but also technical individuals and the Earth emerge as agents of becoming. This article contends that contemporary Continental political theory remains inadequate in addressing history, production, becoming, and creativity, as long as it remains trapped within a static subject-structure framework.Meanwhile, history, as both a research activity that uncovers the conditions of becoming and as the medium where becoming is exhibited, permeates core areas of political theory. It will be proposed that contemporary transformations — ecological, technological, economic, industrial, and political — have fundamentally reshaped the roles and uses of history and poiesis, exerting a decisive influence on political theory today. These transformations, comparable in impact to the foundational crises of modernity, also affect essential political concepts such as sovereignty, authority, and democracy. Furthermore, the modern framing of nature as an active field of intervention has, in the context of the Anthropocene and its aftermath, evolved into a new stage where not only humans and organic life but also technical individuals and the Earth emerge as agents of becoming.This article contends that contemporary Continental political theory remains inadequate in addressing history, production, becoming, and creativity, as long as it remains trapped within a static subject-structure framework.

Keywords: History; Poiesis; Time; Production; Anthropocene (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fis:journl:250324

DOI: 10.25295/fsecon.1688471

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