Friendship as a Political Concept: A Groundwork for Analysis
| Author | Graham M Smith |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918786856 |
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929918786856
Political Studies Review
2019, Vol. 17(1) 81 –92
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929918786856
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Friendship as a Political
Concept: A Groundwork
for Analysis
Graham M Smith
Abstract
What kind of a concept is friendship, and what is its connection to politics? Critics sometimes
claim that friendship does not have a role to play in the study of politics. Such objections
misconstrue the nature of the concept of friendship and its relation to politics. In response, this
article proposes three approaches to understanding the concept of friendship: (1) as a ‘family
resemblance’ concept, (2) as an instance of an ‘essentially contested’ concept, and (3) as a concept
indicating a problématique. The article thus responds to the dismissal of friendship by undertaking
the groundwork for understanding what kind of a concept friendship might be, and how it might
serve different purposes. In doing so, it opens the way for understanding friendship’s relation to
politics.
Keywords
friendship, scepticism, ‘family resemblance’, ‘essentially contested’, problématique
Accepted: 1 June 2018
Introduction
This article prepares the way for an understanding of friendship and its relation to politics.
Friendship has taken an increasingly prominent place in the study of politics in recent
years (Devere, 2013; Devere and King, 2000; Devere and Smith, 2010; King and Smith,
2007; Koschut and Oelsner, 2014; Von Heyking and Avramenko, 2008). Special attention
has also been paid to the role of friendship in feminist theory (Friedman, 1993;
Schwarzenbach, 2009) and ‘anticolonial’ literature (Gandhi, 2006; Nordin, 2017). In
addition, much of this literature explores historical and theoretical precedents (Devere,
1999; Hutter, 1978; Roshchin, 2006; Rouner, 1994; Von Heyking and Avramenko, 2008).
Nevertheless, some circumspection persists. In the first part of this article (‘Critical views
and their responses: scepticism and disanalogy’) these doubts are outlined and discussed.
They can be summarised under two broad headings. First, the ‘sceptical’ view denies both
the possibility and the desirability of any connection between friendship and politics.
School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Corresponding author:
Graham M Smith, School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
Email: ipigms@leeds.ac.uk
786856PSW0010.1177/1478929918786856Political Studies ReviewSmith
research-article2018
Article
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