Radical democrats highlight dramatic moments of political action that disrupt everyday habits
of perception, which sustain unequal social relations. In doing so, however, we sometimes
neglect how social conditions, such as precarious employment, social dislocation and
everyday exposure to violence, might undermine political agency ...
Radical democrats highlight dramatic moments of political action that disrupt everyday habits
of perception, which sustain unequal social relations. In doing so, however, we sometimes
neglect how social conditions, such as precarious employment, social dislocation and
everyday exposure to violence, might undermine political agency or be contested in
uneventful ways. Despite their differences, two thinkers who have significantly influenced
radical democratic theory (Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière) have been similarly
criticised for contributing to such a socially weightless picture of politics. However, attending
to how they are preoccupied by the social conditions of inequality and loneliness enables us
to recognize two distinct aspects of democratic politics: emancipation and civility.
Cultivating an interpretive flexibility to shift between these aspects of politics might enable
radical democrats to more clearly picture how struggles for appearances are limited and
shaped by the social conditions within which they are enacted.