Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture

Refugees and the State of the Human

nmccoy1 The status of refugees, as Giorgio Agamben asserts, is predicated on an articulation of what constitutes the human.  What the refugee challenges or makes visible is not only that human rights are not naturally given but also that what is human is not naturally given.  If we are constituted and defined through the sovereign as Agamben argues, whose power is based on the ability to determine inclusion and exclusion, then our humanity is bounded solely  by the authority and...