ABSTRACT
Extending the argument of my book Nomad Citizenship (2011), which examined groups of nomad citizens who self-organize and operate autonomously from capital and the State, I here extend the concept of nomad citizenship to individuals and groups operating within already-existing institutions. This extension is necessary because becoming worthy of events such as “the Anthropocene” will require not just social-movement war-machines but also intervention in and by States and other established institutions. I take as a point of departure Althusser’s extended analysis of the ideological function of State apparatuses, expanding it beyond State apparatuses to institutions in general. Engineering Althusser’s concept of Ideological State Apparatuses for the mechanosphere entails jettisoning his notion of ideology and rewriting his conceptions of both subjectivity and the mode of production. The result is an account of explicitly political improvisation operating within the context, yet against the grain, of institutional constraints.
