Kinship as a political act : responding to political exclusion through communities of solidaristic kinship

Abstract

The question motivating this dissertation is, ‘in a heterogenous society such as the contemporary western world, can a consensus be reached about moral claims regarding vulnerable persons which would otherwise result in their exclusion from the polis?’ I attempt to answer this question in the affirmative through the threefold aims of this dissertation: First, by proposing a retrieval of a thicker notion of kinship; second, by exploring whether such a notion might be capable of countering the political exclusion of vulnerable populations; and, third, by proposing how this can be done. I base my understanding of kinship on the work of contemporary anthropologists who agree that kinship is the “same entity in different subjects,” that this “entity” is but a “system of symbols” that is conventionally agreed upon by that particular culture, and that its function is “diffuse and enduring solidarity” among those who share this “entity.” I observe that, over time, the term “kinship” was understood in a very reductionist sense, and I take frail elderly persons as an example of a vulnerable population that has fallen victim to this poor understanding of kinship. I argue that re-establishing kinship with frail elderly persons—specifically through communities of solidaristic kinship—can also help cultivate in the agent the civic virtues which in turn counter the vices that might be responsible for the political exclusion of vulnerable populations.