Dr Lasse Thomassen, BA (Copenhagen), MA, PhD (Essex)
Senior Lecturer

Office Hours:

Semester A - Wednesday 1-2pm and Thursday 9-10am

Semester B - Wednesday 9-10am & Thursday 9-10am

Research interests:

My current research has three foci: first, a deconstructive reading of the political philosophy of Jürgen Habermas; second, debates within radical democratic theory, for instance debates surrounding Laclau and Mouffe's work and debates between so-called theorists of abundance and theorists of lack; and, third, discourses on tolerance, especially contemporary theories and cases of tolerance. I welcome potential students with interests in any of these areas and in contemporary political theory more broadly. 

I welcome PhD applications in the following areas:

• Post-structuralist political theory
• Radical democracy and politics
• Discourse theory
• Tolerance, recognition and multiculturalism

Publications:

Books

Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum, 2010).

Deconstructing Habermas (London: Routledge, 2007).

Edited Books

The Derrida-Habermas Reader (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).

(with Lars Tønder) Radical democracy: Politics between abundance and lack (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005).

Journal Articles

‘Deliberative Democracy and Provisionality.’ Contemporary Political Theory 10:4 (2011), 423-43.

‘(Not) Just a Piece of Cloth: Begum, Recognition and the Politics of Representation.’ Political Theory 39:3 (2011). 325-51.

‘The Politics of Iterability: Benhabib, the Hijab, and Democratic Iterations’, Polity 43:1 (2011), 128-49.

‘Political Theory in a Provisional Mode’, Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy 13:4 (2010), 453-73.

‘Deconstruction as method in political theory’, Austrian Journal of Political Science 39, no. 1 ( 2010), 41-53.

‘Gladiator, violence and the founding of a republic’, PS: Political Science & Politics 42, no. 1 (2009), 145-8.

‘Within the Limits of Deliberative Reason Alone: Habermas, Civil Disobedience and Constitutional Democracy', European Journal of Political Theory 6:2 (2007), 201-19.

‘Beyond representation?', Parliamentary Affairs 60, no. 1 (2007): 111-26.

‘The Inclusion of the Other? Habermas and the Paradox of Tolerance', Political Theory 34, no. 4 (2006): 439-62.

‘Discourse analytical strategies: antagonism, hegemony and ideology after heterogeneity', Journal of Political Ideologies 10, no. 3 (2005): 289-309.

‘Habermas og Derrida: filosofien i ei kritisk tid', trans. Åsmund Forfang, Syn & Segn 4 (2005): 22-34.

‘Heterogeneity, Inclusion and Exclusion: Displacements of Life, Liberty, and Refugees in Angelopoulos' Eternity and a Day', Contemporary Justice Review 8, no. 4 (2005): 381-95 .

‘Democracy, Citizenship and Exclusion', Bordes 8 (2001): 9-20.

Book Chapters

‘Multiculturalism’, in Michael T. Gibbons (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Political Thought (New York: Blackwell, under contract).

‘Radical Democracy’, in Rosi Braidotti (ed.), The History of Continental Philosophy. Vol. 7: After Poststructuralism: Transitions and Transformations (London: Acumen, 2010), pp. 169-86.

‘Radical Democracy’, in Mark Bevir (ed.), The Sage Encyclopedia of Political Theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,  2010). pp.1141-5

‘Jürgen Habermas’, in M. Bevir (ed.), The Sage Encyclopedia of Political Theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,  2010).pp. 587-94

‘Radical democracy', in R. Braidotti (ed.), History of Continental Philosophy. Vol. 7: Post-Poststructuralism (London: Acumen, forthcoming 2010).

‘Towards a Cosmopolitics of Heterogeneity: Borders, Communities and Refugees in Angelopoulos's Balkan Trilogy', in D. Morgan and G. Banham (eds), Cosmopolitics and the Emergence of a Future (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007), 191-210

‘Derrida vs. Habermas revisited', in Derrida: Negotiating the Legacy, ed. Madeleine Fagan et al. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), 210-24.

‘“A Bizarre, Even Opaque Practice”: Habermas on Constitutionalism and Democracy', in The Derrida-Habermas Reader, ed. Lasse Thomassen (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, and Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006), 176-94.

‘Introduction', in The Derrida-Habermas Reader, ed. Lasse Thomassen (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, and Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006), 1-7.

‘In/exclusions: towards a radical democratic approach to exclusion', in Radical democracy: Politics between abundance and lack, eds. Lars Tønder and Lasse Thomassen (Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2005), 103-19.

(with Lars T ønder) ‘Introduction: rethinking radical democracy between abundance and lack', in Radical democracy: Politics between abundance and lack, eds. Lars Tønder and Lasse Thomassen (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), 1-13

‘Habermas', in The Palgrave Guide to Continental Political Thought, eds. Terrell Carver and James Martin (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005), 196-210.

‘From the Modern to the Post-Modern: Deconstructing Habermas', in Hybrid Spaces: Theory, Culture, Economy, eds. Johannes Angermüller, Kathrin Bunzmann and Christina Rauch (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2000), 73-83.

Review Essays

‘Between deconstruction and rational reconstruction'. European Journal of Political Theory 7, no. 3 (2008), 382-90.

‘Habermas and His Others', Polity 37, no. 4 ( 2005 ): 548-60.

‘Bound by Identity', Political Theory 33, no. 3 (2005): 320-5.

Replies

‘“A basic closure of perspective?” Reply to Robinson and Tormey', Parliamentary Affairs 60, no. 1 (2007) 138-42.

‘Reading radical democracy: a commentary on Clive Barnett', Political Geography 24, no. 5 (2005): 631-9.

‘Lacanian Political Theory: A Reply to Robinson', British Journal of Politics and International Relations 6, no. 4 (2004): 558-61.

Interviews

(with Rasmus Kleis Nielsen) ‘Chantal Mouffe' and ‘Introducing Chantal Mouffe', Politik 7, no. 4 (2004): 22-34. Reprinted in R. K. Nielsen, O. Dahl Rasmussen and O. Wæver (eds), 10 x 10 (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007).

(with Marta Hernandez, Seoungwon Lee and Carlos Pessoa) ‘Theory, Democracy and the Left: An Interview with Ernesto Laclau', Umbra 6 (2001): 7-27. Translation as ‘Hegemoni, demokrati og politik: Interview med Ernesto Laclau', www.diskurs.dk (Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde University Press, 2001).

Additional

Book Review Editor, European Political Science

Undergraduate teaching:

• POL206 Modern Political Thought (Level 5)
• POL356 Tolerance: Theories and Cases (Level 6)
• POL357 Theories of Radical Democracy and Politics (Level 6)