Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Practice Of Trust, Disclosure, And Collaboration With Guatemalan Refugees, Óscar F. Gil-García

Óscar F. Gil-García

A Sense Of Belonging: Professor Works With Indigenous Migrant Communities In The United States And Mexico, Travis Clines

Óscar F. Gil-García

Superfluousness, Human Rights And The State: Applying Arendt To Questions Of Femicide, Narco Violence And Illegal Immigration In A Globalized World, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper shows how Hannah Arendt’s disturbing notion of superfluousness and her critique of human rights are highly applicable to the problems globalization has brought to the U.S.-Mexico border region and beyond, with worrying consequences. In theory, ‘inalienable’ human rights form a safety net to catch those whose governments fail to afford them political rights. But, as Arendt pointed out, such minimum rights only function if one’s state is willing and able to guarantee them. For her, stateless persons are deprived of both a territory and of occupying a ‘niche in the framework of the general law.’ They are thus …

Violence And Deprivation: Arendt And The Pervasiveness Of Superfluous Life, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper emerges from, and engages with, the current proliferation of discussions concerning Arendt’s views on sovereignty, humanity, and superfluousness. Tracing some of the different strands of her notion of human superfluousness, I look at how the exclusion and deprivation inherent in the idea of superfluousness is reflected in, and illuminated by, contemporary questions surrounding stateless persons, and several key experiences of terrorism. I argue that the strong and radical connections this notion has with Arendt´s concept of violence deserve more emphasis than it has hitherto received. For the link between superfluousness and the biopolitical ‘administration of bare lives’ undertaken …