The ambiguities of cohabitation

Harker, C

Abstract

In this paper I examine Judith Butler's ethic of cohabitation as a means of thinking intimacy-geopolitics. Butler's ethic of cohabitation begins with an inability to choose in advance who we inhabit the earth with. Conceptually this idea is linked with the precariousness of life: a subject's life is always in the hands of others, both known and unknown. As such, cohabitation is always an intimate affair that is at the same time global. However, I argue cohabitation as ethical relation fails to map neatly onto cohabitation as spatial practice, and thus it is an ambivalent resource.

Citation

Harker, C. (2014). The ambiguities of cohabitation. Area, 46(4), 355-356. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12138_6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Nov 20, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 17, 2016
• Journal: Area
• Print ISSN: 0004-0894
• Electronic ISSN: 1475-4762
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 46
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 355-356
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12138_6
• Keywords: Cohabitation, Judith Butler, Palestine.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1441617