Engaging Vulnerabilities: An Outline for a Responsive and Responsible Theory

Abstract

This paper proposes that several methodological imperatives should guide responsible and responsive theorising in order for any form of solidarity between philosophers and the vulnerable people they theorise about to be possible. As purveyors of conceptualisations, principles and critique, social and political philosophers contribute to public debates, often oblivious of how they tap into a community's political imaginary, sometimes challenging, other times reinforcing it. I propose that philosophers need to assume responsibility for how they conceptually carve out "reality" and for the normative assessment thereof, often enunciated from a position of authority. Moreover, in theorising, philosophers must be responsive to and solicit the voices of the vulnerable. Building on feminist and critical race theory and social epistemology, I first outline a vision of responsible and responsive theory, centred on practices of apprenticeship and playful world travelling, which have an affective dimension. I then introduce a methodological ethos that enables philosophers to participate reflexively in debates over difficult issues, contributing illuminating (rather than obscuring) ideas to the public hermeneutical pool of interpretive resources. I conclude by discussing how irresponsible and irresponsive theory dealt with a specific case of vulnerable people-migrants and refugees-thus foreclosing the very possibility of solidarity.

Normative Demand for Deference in Political Solidarity

“…Scholz does not use the term deference (Gould, 2007;and Kolers, 2016, do), but it is implicit in her account, insofar as the insider's knowledge must be acknowledged by those in positions of power or privilege in order for the latter to participate authentically. Other theorists have framed this in terms of 'apprenticeship' to the disadvantaged (Spelman, 2002), demonstrating trustworthiness (Taylor, 2015), or in Lugones' influential account of 'worldtravelling' one similarly encouters the idea of imaginatively engaging with the experience of the oppressed in order to understand (Lugones, 1987(Lugones, , 2003Mihai, 2020). As above, the common theme in all of this is a claim about the epistemic authority of those with direct lived experience of oppression.…”

“…(see, inter alia, Ackerley et al, 2021;Mihai, 2020;Van Der Anker, 2008). The familiar slogan, 'nothing about us without us', originating in disabled peopleled organisations, has become a guiding principle of social justice movements, but some contemporary activism and theorising about solidarity implicitly or explicitly make more stringent demands in relation to the authoritative role of those with lived experience of oppression or injustice, and the subordinate role of allies, in solidarity movements.…”

Engaged Solidaristic Research

“…Researchers risk imposing their voices upon research participants, which may perpetuate othering. Postcolonial theorists have emphasized the fact that the intention to learn from marginalized perspectives may reproduce colonial dynamics of subordination by essentializing their roles (Mihai 2020). Efforts should be made to include these perspectives while avoiding a romanticization of these voices, granting them an uncritical status of "authentic insider" (Narayan 1997; see also Smith 2012).…”

Comradely Critique

“…Here, theorists can learn from Mihaela Mihai’s (2019: 583) account of responsible and responsive theorising where ‘responsible theorizing refers to reflective, self-critical conceptual practices . .…”