Constituent power beyond exceptionalism: Irregular migration, disobedience, and (re-)constitution
| Author | Robin Celikates |
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1755088218808311 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1755088218808311
Journal of International Political Theory
2019, Vol. 15(1) 67 –81
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1755088218808311
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Constituent power beyond
exceptionalism: Irregular
migration, disobedience,
and (re-)constitution
Robin Celikates
Institute for Advanced Study, USA; University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
This article argues that, far from being a merely defensive act of individual protest,
civil disobedience is a much more radical political practice. It is transformative in that
it aims at the politicization of questions that are excluded from the political domain
and at reconfiguring public space and existing institutions, often in comprehensive
ways. Focusing on the reconstitution of the political community also allows us to
reconceptualize constituent power. Rather than portraying it as a quasi-mythical force
erupting only in extraordinary moments, constituent power can be conceptualized as a
dynamic situated within established orders, transgressing their logic and reconfiguring
them from within. Civil disobedience as a transformative and potentially comprehensive
practice aimed at reconstituting the political order can then be seen as an internal
driving force keeping this dialectic in play. A concrete example can be found in protests
and border struggles by irregularized migrants. They show how unexpected forms of
civil disobedience manage to politicize symbolic and institutional structures that are
usually taken for granted or naturalized and thereby removed from politicization, such
as borders and citizenship. In this way, they exemplify not only the defensive/reactive
but also the constituent/transformative force of disobedience.
Keywords
Borders, civil disobedience, constituent power, migration
When over 300 irregularized migrants,1 who had occupied the church St. Bernard in
Paris and referred to themselves as “sans-papiers,” were violently evicted by the police
Corresponding author:
Robin Celikates, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Oude Turfmarkt 145, 1012 GC
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Email: r.celikates@uva.nl
808311IPT0010.1177/1755088218808311Journal of International Political TheoryCelikates
research-article2018
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