The art of living together : on political engagement and the ethics of companionship
This dissertation proposes that popular movements or uprisings can unite ethics and politics in a direct, practical manner and constitute an illuminating domain from which to advance normative theory that responds to the challenges of injustice in our world today. Any study of these movements ought to engage with a specific event and its context and renounce the position of ‘observer.’ Accordingly, I have chosen to examine the revolutions sparked in the Arab world over the past decade, particularly focusing on the account of Tahrir Square. In order to appreciate the novelty these revolutions offer, it is necessary to first dismantle the deeply entrenched epistemic grounds of Western political theory which consider revolutions only on the basis of their end results, particularly whether or not they effect regime change. These popular movements not only defy democratization studies and its prescription for change from above, they also fundamentally challenge the domain of politics and some of its basic tenets. This confrontation occurs the moment the people gain their agency and use their political power demonstrably and concretely. The domain of politics is further challenged when the people create, as they did in Tahrir Square, a public sphere that is receptive to individual desires and interests as well as collective solidarity and responsibility.  The conditions under which these movements organize their collective political action – horizontally, non-hierarchically, and unmediated by representative and leaders – resist the threat of their power being instrumentalized to obtain middling results pertaining to state power. This form of organization also reconfigures the crowd’s ethical interactions, unmistakeably on display in Tahrir Square, producing what I call “ethics of companionship.” These ethics can be reformulated and practiced in manner attuned to both self and other, and adapted to the specific needs and injustices of the world around us. An ethics of companionship is responsive and open for negotiation and persuasion, and above all, it makes an art out of our living together.
Civic ethics Democratization studies Solidarity Political engagement Political power Arab spring Companionship