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Nomadism and the Ghetto

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Abstract

Classical social theory and philosophy have focused predominantly on the life-forms of the settled. Indeed, both Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft, the two basic concepts of social theory, express sedentary life-forms. So it is not surprising that the nomadic — that which is in movement — has been systematically excluded from the narrations of ‘society’ and ‘community’. The basic antagonism that characterizes the constitution of ‘the social’ is, therefore, nomadic movement versus fixed territories, transgression versus the law, flow versus borders. The ‘other’ of society is, in other words, not ‘community’ but the nomad.

History is always written from the sedentary point of view and in the name of a unitary State apparatus, at least a possible one, even when the topic is nomads. What is lacking is a nomadology.

(Deleuze and Guattari, 1987: 23)

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© 2008 Bülent Diken and Carsten Bagge Laustsen

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Diken, B., Laustsen, C.B. (2008). Nomadism and the Ghetto. In: Mouritsen, P., Jørgensen, K.E. (eds) Constituting Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582088_11

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