ABOUT THIS BOOK

A compelling argument for adopting the concept of “mutual integration” to overcome injustice and enhance social solidarity.

The public culture of the receiving society and the dominant understanding of belonging and political membership can influence the social participation of immigrants as much as immigration law. However, current discussions of integration focus primarily on the distribution of rights and neglect the role of tacit knowledge. Through a systematical and philosophical analysis of identity’s role in policymaking, governance, and social practice, Bodi Wang shows how a one-sided understanding of integration resembles “assimilation” and why integration should be expected from locals as well. This argument weaves together extensive findings in sociology, history, critical race theory, and Chinese philosophy with ethics and migration studies.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Bodi Wang is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Humanities, Social, and Political science at ETH Zurich.

REVIEWS

“The thesis is full of goof ideas and thorough argumentation. It is a substantial contribution to a growing body of literature on concrete questions of oppression and discrimination within political philosophy.” --- Chrisrian Neuhäuser (Technical University of Dortmund)

“The thesis is well-crafted, original and full of unexpected insights. In a clearly structured sequence of chapters and argumentative steps, Bodi Wang develops her own position in close dialogue with an impressive range of philosophical traditions, paradigms and theories.” --- Robin Celikates (Free University of Berlin)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction
Integration Beyond Formal Equality

One The (Im)Possibility of Integration
The Assimilation-like Integration
The Muhammad Cartoon Controversy and the Generalized Other
The Problem of Moral Generalism
Segregation and the Perpetual Foreigners
When is Integration Possible?

Two Identity-based Thinking
Social Orders and Necessary Identity
Apparent Necessity, (Un)Justifiable Necessity, and the Identity of “Immigrant”
Identity-based Thinking and How It Excludes

Three The Epistemology of Identity-based Thinking
The Model of Assumed Objectivity
Epistemic Irresponsibility
Epistemic Injustice

Four Knowing People
Why Take Subjectivity into Consideration?
Narrative Knowledge and the Concrete Other
Ethics of Difference and the Moral Significance of Self-Cultivation

Five Making Sense of “Strangers”
Who are “Strangers” in Our Midst?
Structural Injustice and Two Structures That Make “Strangers”
“Not-Self”: The Self-Centered Model of Strangeness
The “Stranger” and the Need for the Third Element

Six History and Structural Transformation
Alienation: the Interactional, the Structural and the Existential
Why History?
History as a Social Connection Model of Responsibility
History as the Site of “Possibility”
Structural Transformation

Conclusion
Integration as Integration of People