Aesthetics of equality

Presuming that the problem of political equality, as it bears on both persons and assemblages, is about being accorded access to the material and symbolic resources needed to manage an effective civic presence, Michael J. Shapiro's critical interventions engage the way a wide variety of aesthetic genres address this problem. In Aesthetics of Equality, Shapiro offers a guide to aesthetic methods, focusing on how to conceive equality issues through conceptual engagements with diverse artistic genres. Emphasizing relationships between compositional form and ideational commitment, while focusing on the texts' protagonists (aesthetic subjects), the analyses include a wide variety of spaces and historical moments in scenes ranging from ancient Israel and Egypt in the Old Testament's Genesis to the ethno-histories of California and Texas, with attention on the right to urban space in such megacities as Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Istanbul.

"Aesthetics of Equality is a theoretical and compositional intervention into the problem of equality. While some of the analysis is concerned with contemporary issues, the book is a primarily a work of political theory and a guide to aesthetic methods, focused on how one can conceive equality issues critically through conceptual engagements with diverse artistic genres: literature, film, music, photography, and architecture. Beginning with the question, "what one can contribute to equality issues by being attentive to aesthetic form in a variety of artistic genres that challenge institutionalized accounts of history," the book proceeds to implement answer by extracting political problematics with analyses of the compositional structures of the textual objects of analysis in the chapter's diverse inquiries. While aesthetic strategies are a main concern in the investigation, it is also shaped by commitments to some substantive political concerns, particularly an attentiveness to persons and voices that tend to be civically invisible The assembled chapters demonstrate the way critical approaches to a variety of media genres make visible and audible the persons and groups that are excluded or disqualified from access to livable domestic space and civic participation. The subject matter is temporally extensive, ranging from ancient Israel and Egypt in the Old Testament's Genesis chapter through the early and later ethno-histories of California and Texas and geographically broad, with chapters on diverse cities: New York, Paris, Istanbul, Los Angeles, and fictional Texas and Mexican border cities"--

Presuming that the problem of political equality, as it bears on both persons and assemblages, is about being accorded access to the material and symbolic resources needed to manage an effective civic presence, Michael J. Shapiro's critical interventions engage the way a wide variety of aesthetic genres address this problem. In 'Aesthetics of Equality', Shapiro offers a guide to aesthetic methods, focusing on how to conceive equality issues through conceptual engagements with diverse artistic genres.