The Unique Normativity of Exclusion and Movement

The Unique Normativity of Exclusion and Movement Abstract The presentation addresses the issue of political normativity from a unique perspective. It shows that exclusion is an essentially political conception which defines the political sphere. In my view, the political is the realm of the perpetual possibility of exclusion. It is led by the endless struggle for not be excluded at various levels of politics. The conceptual advantage of exclusion lies in its passive characteristic, in the sense that it does not require any actual claims to appear at the side of the excluded subjects. In this sense, the political is not necessarily intertwined with explicit claims of recognition or actual participation. It does not depend on someone’s actual will to be heard; rather, it can mean both the intentional and the unintentional exclusion of certain from the politics and the political community. I argue that exclusion is a fundamental characteristic of the political realm because exclusion is (1) definitive, in the sense that it hinders any further possibilities for the excluded to get back into the game – or even be included in the first place. It is (2) propulsive, that is, it is a primary driving force for the political sphere. And it is (3) structural, in the sense that gender, race, sexual orientation, and intersections of these social characteristics can be underlying, yet implicit reasons for excluding someone from private circles and associations. The next step of my argument builds on the relationship between exclusion and movement. The specialty of movement is located in its deep interconnectedness with the possibility of exclusion. In human history, movement and migration have always involved some kind of uncertainty in the sense of lack of voice or status, the obscurity of future prospects, and deficiencies in capabilities of self-organization and self-defense, among others. The reasons for these dispossessions are twofold: either the desire for settlement of some groups has been incompatible with the more mobile way of life of other groups, or political communities have been producing their subjects of excluded, forcing them to move. Therefore, while exclusion is a broad term for manifold social dynamics, movement is a concept that is inherently linked to the possibility of exclusion. Exclusion inherent in movement and migration corresponds to these characteristics of exclusion. Building on Thomas Nail’s (2015) unusual approach to migration, I argue that the exclusion inherent in movement and migration corresponds to the three conditions I depicted above. Therefore, I conclude, our focus should be directed from attempts to find solutions for once and for all to what is more important: it allows us to recognize different forms of exclusions and to address their underlying causes, motivations, operations, and roles in our social and political life.