Through the re-interpretation of influential thinkers such as Arendt, Weil, Beauvoir and Habermas, Mary G. Dietz weds the concerns of demcratic thought with that of feminist political theory, demonstrating how important feminist theory has become to democratic thinking more generally. Bringing together fifteen years of commentary on critical debates, Turning Operations begins with problems central to feminism and ends with a series of reflections on the "the politics of politics," inviting the reader to think more expansively about the expressly public nature of political life.

How can we critique political theory when all we have to use are its own conceptual tools? As Hannah Arendt observed, it can only be done through leaps, inversions and the turning of concepts upside-down. But this twisting operation must be done in order to turn those who philosophize back to the hard work of real life change.