Exiles as Co-Authors

Abstract

This chapter explores shared identity as a basis for exile politics. It provides a dialogical account of individual and social or collective identities that conceives of these as a narrative. It then provides an overview of associative obligations and argues that shared identity generates special duties that can account for why exiles go beyond the minimal duty to assist. Shared identity can help address obstacles to collective action and make these more extensive efforts practicable and effective. Exile complicates identity, however. Exile engenders greater pluralism in exile and exile provides a site for identities suppressed back home to survive and flourish, ensuring that marginalized perspectives are given some expression. This pluralism, however, can hinder prospects for collective action, and lead to systematic divergences between the homeland and those in exile. Exile politics’ ameliorative function back home is in tension with, although not necessarily fatal to, its ability to perform a corrective function abroad.