Politics, Sociology, and the 'Inevitability' of Failure

The chapter begins by pointing out the contribution of sociological interpretations that focus on failure’s discursive and normative effects; for example, as an instrument to advance governmental action, a means to exert control or as an obstacle to be overcome. The main part of the chapter sets out an argument that failure is not something that should necessarily be conceived of in terms of overcoming. It is here the chapter draws attention to a strand of literature that includes Michel Foucault, Max Weber and Hans-Georg Gadamer to illustrate the inevitability of failure across all forms of social interaction such as politics, bureaucracy and science. The final part of the chapter extends a view of failure as “inevitable” that draws on the work of the playwright Beckett and asks what direction politics might take if failure were to be conceived of as a condition for action.