{"title":"Decolonising the political: Presence, law and obligation","authors":"Julia Eckert","doi":"10.1177/14634996231185324","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In his recent book, Mahmood Mamdani calls for the decolonisation of politics to overcome the categorical and conceptual legacies of the colonial nation state that generate, time and again, cycles of retributive violence. Mamdani's suggestion of survivor communities, I argue, does not go far enough. The epistemological revolution necessary to reconceptualise legitimate belonging must go beyond the notion of surviving a shared history. If what is at issue is creating an inclusive political order, political community cannot be based on a shared past but must rather encompass all those who share a present. Moreover, if the distinction between permanent majorities and permanent minorities established by the nation state is continued in the structures created by that order, instruments of redress are required. The political question and the social question are one. To this end, rather than abandoning notions of legal responsibility, an epistemological revolution in the legal notions of responsibility is needed. To liberate the question of who belongs from the logic of prerogative that is the corollary of the nation state form and to radically alter the logic of membership, responsibility must be reconceptualised to take account of our implication in the situation of others. We can conceive of polities not as constituted by a shared past, but as premised on our collective inhabitation of entangled histories and presents.","PeriodicalId":51554,"journal":{"name":"Anthropological Theory","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Anthropological Theory","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996231185324","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In his recent book, Mahmood Mamdani calls for the decolonisation of politics to overcome the categorical and conceptual legacies of the colonial nation state that generate, time and again, cycles of retributive violence. Mamdani's suggestion of survivor communities, I argue, does not go far enough. The epistemological revolution necessary to reconceptualise legitimate belonging must go beyond the notion of surviving a shared history. If what is at issue is creating an inclusive political order, political community cannot be based on a shared past but must rather encompass all those who share a present. Moreover, if the distinction between permanent majorities and permanent minorities established by the nation state is continued in the structures created by that order, instruments of redress are required. The political question and the social question are one. To this end, rather than abandoning notions of legal responsibility, an epistemological revolution in the legal notions of responsibility is needed. To liberate the question of who belongs from the logic of prerogative that is the corollary of the nation state form and to radically alter the logic of membership, responsibility must be reconceptualised to take account of our implication in the situation of others. We can conceive of polities not as constituted by a shared past, but as premised on our collective inhabitation of entangled histories and presents.
期刊介绍:
Anthropological Theory is an international peer reviewed journal seeking to strengthen anthropological theorizing in different areas of the world. This is an exciting forum for new insights into theoretical issues in anthropology and more broadly, social theory. Anthropological Theory publishes articles engaging with a variety of theoretical debates in areas including: * marxism * feminism * political philosophy * historical sociology * hermeneutics * critical theory * philosophy of science * biological anthropology * archaeology