 That which Jameson calls the final phase

in the development of capitalism in

which the logic of capitalist
accumulation has already invaded
every previously uncommodified area of
existence by becoming both extensive
and intensive by ruling over social
reproduction by governing the impulses,
thoughts, desires and emotions of
individuals.(Gonzaga, 2009)
 Drawing from Mojares (1997), Gonzaga
directs our attention to sites that provide
illusions of ease and wealth – best
exemplified by malls – which he calls
transnational spaces. They remain
imaginary however as “the moment [they]
leave their domain they find themselves
transported back to a world where they are
choked once more by the oppressiveness
of the heat and the pollution, the unruly
traffic of crowds and vehicles, and the
ubiquity of privation and indifference.” (p.
3)
 “Although the totalizing structure of the
nation may have weakened, its worth has
certainly not diminished. Because it can
potentially form a community among
disparate individuals, the nation remains for
many a possibility of resistance against the
oppressive domination of local and
international elites and the helpless feeling
of dislocation and alienation caused by
global flows” (p. 3).
 “The nation has been a figure of desire
and contemplation [by providing] a
fulcrum of hope and resistance for
subaltern populations, a sense of
belonging for migrants displaced by the
world market, and an instrument of
control for totalitarian bureaucracies,
capitalist oligopolies, and elite
democracies” (p. 15).
 Political nationalism vis-à-vis cultural
nationalism

 An examination of EDSA as the primary

example of the operation of official
nationalism
 Citing Hardt and Negri, Gonzaga makes
clear that the nation-state “transforms
the radical multiplicity of the multitude
into the homogenous identity of the
people. A sovereignty has authority
because it is said to be constituted by a
people who express a single, general
will” (p. 17).
 The State “striates its entire territorial
domain and captures all existing flows in
order to augment its power… harnessing
its sources to manufacture and maintain
every norm within its domain, the State
transforms the chaos of heterogeneity
and multiplicity into a manageable
order and reality” (p. 17-18)
 “in order to transform or nationalize
autonomous individuals into compliant
citizens, the nation-state relies on
institutions or factories of subjectification
Foucault calls enclosures” (p. 18).
 Despite its totalizing character, the State
however is not as omnipotent as it
presents itself to be for as Gonzaga
shows, the resources at its command are
not inexhaustible and thus, there will
always be what he calls errant flows:
“that which escapes capture…
populations that cannot be
nationalized” (p. 19).
 underground economy,
 squatters,
 private armies,
 dissident nationalisms
 NGOs
 OFWs
 IPs
 “Errant flows are confined by the State to
the recesses of its territory: squalid
prisons, low-cost housing projects far
from the urban centers, or squatters’
areas that are boarded up from sight
when foreign luminaries visit the country
or burned down to make way for new
infrastructure.” (p. 19)
Transcendent power
Immanent power

Universal deception Point of subjectification

Subject of enunciation
Nomad
 White wall of signifiance
 Black holes of subjectification

 “Faciality thus has two fuctions of

biunivcalization: the distribution of facial
units in biunivocal relations like inside and
outside, good and bad, ruler and ruled...
and the reduction of subjective choice to a
series of “yes-no” decisions with those
demanding alternatives being rejected
from society.” (p. 21)
 Gonzaga, E. (2009). Globalization and
Becoming-Nation: Subjectivity,
Nationhood, and Narrative in the
Period of Global Capitalism.