Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley.
Zeynep Gambetti is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bogaziçi University.
Leticia Sabsay is Assistant Professor in the Gender Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley.
Zeynep Gambetti is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bogaziçi University.
Leticia Sabsay is Assistant Professor in the Gender Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley.
Zeynep Gambetti is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bogaziçi University.
Leticia Sabsay is Assistant Professor in the Gender Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Risking Oneself and One’s Identity: Agonism Revisited
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Published:October 2016
This chapter distinguishes between two registers of vulnerability through the notion of “agon.” The risk associated with precarity arises from the differential exposure to visibility, support systems, and vital resources (Butler). But risk can also be construed through the notion of plurality, as an “ex-posure” to difference, liminality, new experiences, and the unpredictability of outcome. While precarity implies antagonism, plurality can be qualified as agonistic. In Hannah Arendt’s thought and the Occupy Gezi movement, being affected by others can only be construed as a loss under conditions of antagonism; but agonistic action—comprising the risk of distinguishing oneself, of discord and difference with respect to others and to oneself—might constitute the very condition of possibility of responsiveness. It might be that without risking one’s identity one cannot sustain it either. This perspective has important implications for gendered relations and for collective action against local, cultural, national, or global structures of subjugation under neoliberalism.
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