BISR Political and Social Theory Seminar - In Defence of Bad Citizenship: Incivility, Injustice and Dissent
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
No booking required
BISR Political and Social Theory Seminar - In Defence of Bad Citizenship: Incivility, Injustice and Dissent
Speaker: Dr Derek Edyvane, Associate Professor in Political Theory, University of Leeds
In 2014 the UK Government attempted to ban being annoying. Its proposal to introduce 'Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance' was met with widespread opposition on libertarian grounds: the bill's wording was thought to curtail individual liberty to an unacceptable extent. In this paper, I develop a more affirmative political argument for being annoying. I achieve this by identifying annoying behaviours, such as queue-jumping, dirty looks, verbal insults, bumps and knocks, as forms of incivility. I argue that low level incivility of this kind can constitute a distinctively valuable mode of civic activism and democratic dissent. In making this case, I break with other accounts of legitimate resistance by arguing that incivility is both permissible and valuable even in conditions of justice. I thus conclude that incivility must not, under any circumstances, be prohibited, and that any moral criticism must be carefully qualified and tempered.
Free event open to all - If you wish to attend, please email Jason Edwards.
This event is held jointly with the Department of Politics Research in Progress seminar.
Contact name:
Madisson Brown