Politics, Identification, and Subjectivization

Rhetoric of Oil in Canadian News: Framed for Indigenous Care

“…In other words, the rhetoric of colonial guilt, which is unsatisfactory to both indigenous and non-indigenous individuals in Canada (Rymhs, 2006), is leveraged here as a form of reconciliation through the promise to let indigenous people (appear to) speak by being visible (this one time) for themselves on the issue of oil. As Rancière (1992) argues, to be recognized means that one has become classifiable within a hierarchical system and made visible within a logical structure that seeks to maintain order. The images take advantage of historical guilt to allow indigenous people to speak for themselves, both in press coverage, in history making, and in politics (Rymhs, 2006).…”

Governing immigrants and citizenship regimes: the case of France, 1950s–1990s

“…This makes it 'impossible' for full citizens to see outsiders as possible equals and deserving of the same rights as themselves. New immigrants have long been viewed as lacking the core attributes needed to be recognized as possible political and social equals (Rancière 1992, Wahnich 1997, Ngai 2004, Raissiguier 2010. The lack of conformity between the values of immigrants and those of the nation makes it impossible for natives and the government to recognize the equality of immigrants.…”

Aesthetics of the Secret

“…The identity of the surveilled data object/neoliberal data subject is not one that is allowed to interact with data in the creation or exploration of radical collective politics. In contrast, in an endeavour to find names or identities--in--relation that can allow those without part to 'take part' 64 in an equitable distribution of the visible and sayable, 'datatariat' might very well 'create political subjects and redraw the sensible perameters'. 65 It might constitute a collectivity of subjects that are 'together inasmuch as they are between,' 66 capable of putting forth the demand that data accumulation serve horizontal and community--forming transparency rather than its hierarchical manifestation.…”

“…76 Rancière's equitable political name has to 'take part' in a way that will reshape the politico--aesthetic configuration, whereas Glissant's opaque subject is one that is in retreat from strategies of visibility. The refusal to acquiesce to knowability and transparency suggests a commitment to opacity that is permanent: to an unconditional 'unknown unknown' rather than an everyday secret.…”

“…An implicit law governing the sensible order that parcels out places and forms of participation Rancière early on names 'policy', 58 and later 'police', 59 determine scopic possibilities, limit who is able to take part in what is common, and prevent the formation of effective political subjectivities.…”