Images of a possible future? Solidarity and the political imaginary

Interactive lecture with discussion

Language: German
Duration: 1.5 hours (including discussion)
In person

What’s it about?

Solidarity has political, social, ethical and psychosocial prerequisites. The concept itself is contested. Debates surrounding solidarity evoke different narratives, images and contexts of meaning, some of which point to conflicting normative foundations. The call for unconditional solidarity reflects an attempt not to limit emancipatory political practice by invoking distinct identity traits or shared experiences. However, talk of the ‘unconditional’ confronts us with a series of questions and contradictions that harbour the risk of oversimplification or relativisation, for political action ‘always takes place in the realm of the conditional’ (O. Marchart) and every ‘we’ entails new exclusions. Political, non-institutionalised solidarity, whilst in practice focusing on the individual or the particular (for example, in the case of sea rescue), always points beyond itself to the level of the general – for instance, when the question of justice is being addressed. But how does the dimension of the imaginary come into play? Shared ideas or fantasies of a desired social transformation motivate acts of solidarity. And at the same time, it is the practical engagement with concrete problems – the encounter between formerly strangers – that has the potential to produce a utopian surplus. In this way, what solidarity is and is meant to signify is constantly being renegotiated.

In my lecture, I would like to examine, from a political-theoretical and psychoanalytical perspective, the relevance of the category of the imaginary (J. Lacan, C. Castoriadis, E. Laclau) for the theory and practice of solidarity. Using specific contemporary and historical examples from East Germany and the GDR, I shall demonstrate when and to what extent solidarity points beyond its concrete scope of application and the status quo. I shall also focus on the question of which inclusions and exclusions are already embedded in our narratives and images of solidarity.

Aim of the contribution

The paper aims to sharpen the concept of solidarity, foster a critical understanding of its normative foundations, and provide an introduction to the concept and history of the social/political imaginary.
Using specific historical examples, the aim is to demonstrate how solidarity tends to produce a utopian surplus of ideas and meanings.
In the discussion, we also wish to address the contradiction that every bond of solidarity inevitably produces new forms of exclusion.