2023/01/25 by Yuna Blajer de la Garza · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Foucault, Power, and Ethics #Political Philosophy and Ethics #Religion and Society Interactions
paper · doi:10.1086/723980
openalex publication_date 2023/01/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Citizens often describe their membership in the political community in terms of how much they belong. This article probes belonging as a category of analysis, aiming to contribute to our understanding of contemporary democratic citizenship and its challenges by using our everyday manners of speech as the object(s) of philosophical inquiry. A focus on belonging disentangles how esteem, identity, and the gaze of others shape experiences of membership. For example, it clarifies why, at times, it is important for equality to be seen not as estimable, but as unremarkable, freed from the scrutiny of others. Belonging carves space to apprehend the egalitarian potential of an ordinariness that need not imply homogeneity. The article then discusses the ways in which formal citizenship simultaneously disappoints in its inability to guarantee belonging and empowers those construed as “citizens who do not belong” to reassert their belonging.