Punk Anarchism: A Non-Political Theory of Resistance

Punk Anarchism is a radical critique of contemporary politics, offering an alternative framework rooted in anarchism, punk rock, dadaism, situationism and political nihilism.

Arguing that traditional approaches to political change are ineffective in the face of the climate crisis and the failures of liberal institutions, the book advocates for rejecting the possibility of meaningful political change within the existing political system.

Drawing on historical cultural movements like the Russian and Japanese nihilists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Sean Parson calls for a politics of pure negation, centered on the destruction of the current social order, rather than its reform - advocating for a revolutionary politics that embraces resentment against the wealthy and rejects hierarchical power dynamics. Punk Anarchism asks: what if resistance were motivated by a sense of playfulness and enjoyment, rather than hope for a better future? Ultimately, Parson proposes an anti-theory of negation as a way to imagine political agency beyond traditional frameworks.

Sean Parson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University, USA. He is the author of Cooking Up a Revolution: Food Not Bombs, Homes Not Jails, and Resistance to Gentrification (2019) and the co-editor of Superheroes and Critical Animal Studies: The Heroic Beasts of Total Liberation (2017). He is on the editorial board for Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics and a board member for The Institute for Critical Animal Studies and is a caucus member for New Political Science.