On Baiocchi's 'We the Sovereign'

Engaging with real and normative stances along with scientific and political dilemmas, the Brazilian-American sociologist Gianpaolo Baiocchi tries to make sense of contemporary political events and experiences through an intellectual book which aims to speak to a wider audience than the usual academic one. We, the Sovereign is an intellectual tool which has been written in a sort of ‘ontological complicity’ with activists, engaged citizens and practitioners, developed years after years of participatory observations and critical scholarship on urban politics, social movements and political participation, whose goal is to inform and foster reflexivity to concur in improving experiments of emancipatory politics. For the reader in a rush, the book is structured around three concise themes. Popular sovereignty is the first theme that emerges as an exercise of constant triangulation between the dynamics of social movements and the state.