Institution

"This highly original study by acclaimed political philosopher Roberto Esposito offers a new genealogy of the institution from ancient Rome to the Covid-19 pandemic. For Esposito, human existence is predicated not simply on the bare preservation of our biological life but upon life's institution across space and time in the form of social, cultural, and political relations. In tracing this institutio vitae, Esposito progressively reveals a new theory of the institution as neither conservative nor repressive, but a creative form of life that liberates us from the twin dangers of institutional sclerosis and anti-institutional anarchy."
Arthur Bradley, Lancaster University