Friendship and Politics

Devere, Heather; Smith, Graham M.

doi:10.1111/j.1478-9302.2010.00214.x

Cited by 44 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…For a growing number of liberal theorists, friendship is a glue that can hold multi-cultural liberal democracies together; without the Leviathan, for Hobbes, it may instead act as a solvent which prises people apart. 1 For a valuable review of this literature see Heather Devere and Graham M. Smith (2010) and Heather Devere (2013). 2 The existing literature on Hobbes's views on friendship is very limited (among the exceptions, Nancy Stanlick 2002, Travis Smith 2008 and does not address my present concern, namely Hobbes's critique of ancient philia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

As Thick as Thieves: Exploring Thomas Hobbes’ Critique of Ancient Friendship and its Contemporary Relevance

Slomp

2018

Political Studies

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Recent decades have witnessed a revival of interest in ancient friendship both as a normative and as an explanatory concept. The literature concurs in holding Hobbes responsible for the marginalisation of friendship in political science and suggests that Hobbes devalued friendship because of his understanding of man. This paper argues that although Hobbes's appraisal of friendship hinges on his assumption that man is self-interested, his critique of normative friendship does not rest on that notion. Hobbes's challenge to us is this: without foundation in the 'truth' (i.e. the 'Good Life') that underpinned ancient friendship, modern friendship, whether self-interested or selfless, cannot be assumed to be a civic virtue, nor an index of the health of a political association, nor a facilitator of domestic or global peace. Hobbes's critique is especially relevant for writers who maintain that a resurgence of friendship can nurture concord and foster reconciliation within contemporary liberal democracies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

As Thick as Thieves: Exploring Thomas Hobbes’ Critique of Ancient Friendship and its Contemporary Relevance

Slomp

2018

Political Studies

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“…Hence, we posit our attention on how amiable relationships create inclusive (and exclusive) spaces for young people and their “significant others” (Taylor, ; also Kallio, ). This approach, as Devere and Smith suggest, “will help to illuminate reciprocal horizontal relations that can transform our view of the political” (Devere & Smith, , p. 341) and, we add, has the potential to provide valuable insights for developing better policies and practices of youth inclusion.…”

Section: Young People's Friendships and Their Mundane Politicsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Experiencing and practising inclusion through friendships

Korkiamäki

Kallio

2017

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The late modern change in young people's community life has meant moving from traditional, place-based communities towards more fluid and situational contexts of belonging. These youth-initiated attachments often build on amiable relationships that fall under the umbrella of "friendship". This paper analyses Finnish early youths' friendship narratives that were produced by sequential participatory methods. It introduces the dimensional and flexible spaces created in and through the participants' friendships. These indicate relational spheres of actual and imagined activities where young people engage with people and places important to them. As a result, the paper first shows how young people together with their peers develop committed ties of belonging that reach beyond physical connection, and how these ties constitute experiential spatial attachments. Second, it demonstrates how they also make friends with kin and non-kin adults and how these intergenerational friendships expand the variety of inclusionary spaces available to them. The findings provide alternative insights into young people's experiences and the practices of social and spatial inclusion. We hope they help to develop cross-generational inclusionary policies that acknowledge youths' amiable relationships as important potential in their lived communities.

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“…In recent decades, considerable work has been undertaken reintroducing the idea of friendship to political analysis and the political lexicon (for surveys see Devere and King 2000, Devere and Smith 2010, Devere 2013. This work has focused not only on the contemporary political scene, it has also drawn from a longer and wider tradition within the West and beyond.…”

Section: Friendship and Politics: A Thumbnail Sketchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Friendship and the new politics: beyond community

Nordin

Smith

2018

Global Discourse

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What role can friendship play in contemporary politics? This article answers this question by showing how friendship supplements one of the central tropes of modern European thought: community. It argues that both the recent phenomenon of populism and more traditional political practice rely on this trope. This results in a politics which focuses on identity and difference, inclusion and exclusion. Ultimately this form of politics seeks an immanence which is impossible to achieve. In contrast, friendship offers a new way of thinking about politics as it focuses on open-ended relations between persons based not on sameness, but otherness and difference. The article articulates five key features of this understanding of friendship: (1) that it is a relationship; (2) between self and other; (3) which exists between the friends; which is (4) extendable into a network but not a unity; and (5) it eschews all programmes or projects. In this way, friendship suggests not a project or a programme, but an ethos. This article concludes by claiming that friendship is the open-ended and ongoing encounter with the other, and its politics holds a shared space open for the potential that this encounter brings.

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Friendship and Politics

Cited by 44 publications

References 53 publications

As Thick as Thieves: Exploring Thomas Hobbes’ Critique of Ancient Friendship and its Contemporary Relevance

As Thick as Thieves: Exploring Thomas Hobbes’ Critique of Ancient Friendship and its Contemporary Relevance

Experiencing and practising inclusion through friendships

Friendship and the new politics: beyond community

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