This chapter question the potential of Hannah Arendt’s political action to communicate otherness for marginalized groups. To this end, I initially examine Jürgen Habermas’ communicative action as an interpretation of political action and argue that his procedural reading is distorted and hinders communication by further othering non-hegemonic actors. Then, I present an alternative reading where the open-ended construction of self in political action as speech provides the tools for communicating otherness in its otherness. Nonetheless, I argue, Arendt’s assigning of spectators as the sole witnesses and not counting violence as political action limit its potential in threatening circumstances. Finally, I test and mobilize those interpretations by analyzing the conditions of Syrian refugees in Türkiye, focusing on the populist right’s discourse, which constructs them as the enemy.

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Communicating Otherness as Political Action: The Case of Syrian Refugees and the Populist Right in Türkiye

  • Sümeyye Sakarya

摘要

This chapter question the potential of Hannah Arendt’s political action to communicate otherness for marginalized groups. To this end, I initially examine Jürgen Habermas’ communicative action as an interpretation of political action and argue that his procedural reading is distorted and hinders communication by further othering non-hegemonic actors. Then, I present an alternative reading where the open-ended construction of self in political action as speech provides the tools for communicating otherness in its otherness. Nonetheless, I argue, Arendt’s assigning of spectators as the sole witnesses and not counting violence as political action limit its potential in threatening circumstances. Finally, I test and mobilize those interpretations by analyzing the conditions of Syrian refugees in Türkiye, focusing on the populist right’s discourse, which constructs them as the enemy.