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Land of Strangers
The impersonality of social relationships in the society of strangers is making majorities increasingly nostalgic for a time of closer personal ties and strong community moorings. The constitutive pluralism and hybridity of modern living in the West is being rejected in an age of heightened anxiety over the future and drummed up aversion towards the stranger. Minorities, migrants and dissidents are expected to stay away, or to conform and integrate, as they come to be framed in an optic of the social as interpersonal or communitarian. Judging these developments as dangerous, this book offers a counter-argument by looking to relations that are not reducible to local or social ties in order to offer new suggestions for living in diversity and for forging a different politics of the stranger. The book explains the balance between positive and negative public feelings as the synthesis of habits of interaction in varied spaces of collective being, from the workplace and urban space, to intimate publics and tropes of imagined community. The book proposes a series of interventions that make for public being as both unconscious habit and cultivated craft of negotiating difference, radiating civilities of situated attachment and indifference towards the strangeness of others. It is in the labour of cultivating the commons in a variety of ways that Amin finds the elements for a new politics of diversity appropriate for our times, one that takes the stranger as there, unavoidable, an equal claimant on ground that is not pre-allocated.
200 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2012
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January 16, 2025
The Stranger
I recently read Charles Murray's controversial book "Coming Apart" which discusses increasing social, cultural, and economic divisions in the United States based largely upon the growth and isolation of an educated elite. Reading "Coming Apart" attracted me to this new book by Ash Amin, "Land of Strangers" (2012) which from its title and summary seemed to involve some of the same issues Murray explored. Amin is the 1931 Chair of Geography at the University of Cambridge. If nothing else, his book shows multi-disciplinary erudition.
Although there are some rough shared issues between Murray's and Amin's books, their focus is different. Some comparisons and contrasts are valuable. Both writers are iconoclastic, intelligent, and opinionated. Murray is a self-described libertarian who also shows, I think, a strong degree of American conservatism. Murray dates the coming apart of the social fabric of the United States from the inception of the Great Society in the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Amin's position resists easy conceptualization, but he is a thinker of the left. He is a strong supporter of what is loosely described as the welfare state. But more importantly he is a proponent of large government interventions to secure fair and equal treatment, as Amin construes them, for all people within a society. Defining the nature of the rights Amin claims is notoriously difficult. To simplify a great deal, Murray is oriented towards liberty while Amin is oriented towards equality. The roles Amin would have government perform set him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Murray. And it is instructive to see that the issues with which the writers deal are not within the exclusive province of either the political left or right.
Amin writes about the way societies treat strangers. He says: "This book is for an idea -- that the stranger is neither friend nor foe, but constitutive". Some of the discussions in the book cross the lines of individual societies, as Amin draws examples from underdeveloped countries as well as from Europe and the United States. As the book proceeds, Amin focuses on the treatment of the stranger in Europe, and to a lesser degree in the United States. His immediate claim is that following September 11 and the economic near-collapse, many nations have become increasingly hostile in the way they treat strangers. The concept of "stranger" and "different" are difficult to define, and in Amin's case, the terms are especially slippery. He discusses, in light of September 11, the treatment of Muslims. But he uses the term much broader to include people of different races, economically and socially disadvantaged individuals, people with gender and sexual preferences different from the majority, and more. Perhaps different considerations might apply at different times to the varied groups that Amin characterizes as "strangers", but Amin lumps various and different groups together.
Before September 11, Amin argues, European and American societies tried to understand and integrate "strangers" be means either of a close-knit communitarian model or a global model. Amin argues that both means are defective because they are too exclusively humanistically focused and ignore the cultural backdrop and material things that encourage people to respond the way they do to strangers. A goal of his book is to develop these factors. Amin does not support a full assimilation of the stranger or treating the stranger as outsider. Rather, he argues for recognizing the value of irreducible difference within shared commonalities.
The book has a strongly philosophical bent derived from 20th Century Continental thinkers. Amin makes a great deal of phenomenological descriptions and of concepts such as being-in-the-world and care derived from Heidegger. It is unclear that Heidegger's philosophical teachings were meant to form or in fact form a basis for a purportedly empirical study. The book probably is more influenced by thinkers who fall under the loose rubric of post-moderns, such as Foucault and Derrida who receive a great deal of attention in the book. The approach of these thinkers is assumed rather than explained. I was left unconvinced that readers need to think in their terms. Amin states that "Like its reading of the social world, the style of the book is hybrid, combining multidisciplinary analysis with polemical and normative intent." There is a great deal indeed of the polemical and normative in the book. It often failed to persuade.
Besides the philosophical background of the book, Amin also discusses a welter of recent studies in the social sciences. I learned from some of his sources and from the impressive bibliography of the book. In the early chapters of the book, there are insightful discussions about how tools such as the Internet change the way people respond to one another and allow for commonalities of interest among those who would in other respects be strangers. Unlike some students, Amin welcomes this development. There is also an excellent discussion about how the workplace promotes different ways of "knowing" and of doing tasks in groups. People can overcome their differences from one another to come together to perform common tasks and to develop a sense of trust in specific things while keeping their own differences.
A central chapter in the book discusses the concept of race and the ways in which the hand of the past hurtfully shapes present attitudes. In the concluding chapters of the book, Amin claims that contemporary Europe and America have been promoting a policy of repressing the stranger and the economically disadvantaged in the name of national security. He recommends a mixture of local community action together with strong action at the national government level to promote true equality. I was not convinced by the breadth of this discussion. Beyond generalities, Amin does not make clear the policies to which he objects and why. Amin want to allow the people he deems as strangers to speak and be heard in their own voices. Amin did not convince me that he extends the same principles to those individuals who might disagree with his philosophical, political, and economic proscriptions.
The book is written in a difficult style, replete with use of the passive voice, jargon, lengthy sentences, and, reflecting its philosophical preoccupations, a reluctance to speak in the first person singular. With attention, the reader can see where the author is going, but the details remain fuzzy and invite confusion.
It is hard to rate this book. Although I learned from and was challenged by it in places, the work on the whole left me frustrated, unconvinced, and cold. The Murray book in its way was an antidote to Amin's approach. Still, there is enough learning and thought in Amin's book that it cannot simply be put aside, as I was at first tempted to do. Readers interested in the issues the book raises may want to struggle with this book, but it will appeal primarily to those readers committed to a political and economic position roughly along the lines of the author's. It was valuable to have this scholarly and difficult book made available to lay readers through the Vine program. Amin's study is unlikely to have appeal to a mass readership.
Robin Friedman
I recently read Charles Murray's controversial book "Coming Apart" which discusses increasing social, cultural, and economic divisions in the United States based largely upon the growth and isolation of an educated elite. Reading "Coming Apart" attracted me to this new book by Ash Amin, "Land of Strangers" (2012) which from its title and summary seemed to involve some of the same issues Murray explored. Amin is the 1931 Chair of Geography at the University of Cambridge. If nothing else, his book shows multi-disciplinary erudition.
Although there are some rough shared issues between Murray's and Amin's books, their focus is different. Some comparisons and contrasts are valuable. Both writers are iconoclastic, intelligent, and opinionated. Murray is a self-described libertarian who also shows, I think, a strong degree of American conservatism. Murray dates the coming apart of the social fabric of the United States from the inception of the Great Society in the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Amin's position resists easy conceptualization, but he is a thinker of the left. He is a strong supporter of what is loosely described as the welfare state. But more importantly he is a proponent of large government interventions to secure fair and equal treatment, as Amin construes them, for all people within a society. Defining the nature of the rights Amin claims is notoriously difficult. To simplify a great deal, Murray is oriented towards liberty while Amin is oriented towards equality. The roles Amin would have government perform set him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Murray. And it is instructive to see that the issues with which the writers deal are not within the exclusive province of either the political left or right.
Amin writes about the way societies treat strangers. He says: "This book is for an idea -- that the stranger is neither friend nor foe, but constitutive". Some of the discussions in the book cross the lines of individual societies, as Amin draws examples from underdeveloped countries as well as from Europe and the United States. As the book proceeds, Amin focuses on the treatment of the stranger in Europe, and to a lesser degree in the United States. His immediate claim is that following September 11 and the economic near-collapse, many nations have become increasingly hostile in the way they treat strangers. The concept of "stranger" and "different" are difficult to define, and in Amin's case, the terms are especially slippery. He discusses, in light of September 11, the treatment of Muslims. But he uses the term much broader to include people of different races, economically and socially disadvantaged individuals, people with gender and sexual preferences different from the majority, and more. Perhaps different considerations might apply at different times to the varied groups that Amin characterizes as "strangers", but Amin lumps various and different groups together.
Before September 11, Amin argues, European and American societies tried to understand and integrate "strangers" be means either of a close-knit communitarian model or a global model. Amin argues that both means are defective because they are too exclusively humanistically focused and ignore the cultural backdrop and material things that encourage people to respond the way they do to strangers. A goal of his book is to develop these factors. Amin does not support a full assimilation of the stranger or treating the stranger as outsider. Rather, he argues for recognizing the value of irreducible difference within shared commonalities.
The book has a strongly philosophical bent derived from 20th Century Continental thinkers. Amin makes a great deal of phenomenological descriptions and of concepts such as being-in-the-world and care derived from Heidegger. It is unclear that Heidegger's philosophical teachings were meant to form or in fact form a basis for a purportedly empirical study. The book probably is more influenced by thinkers who fall under the loose rubric of post-moderns, such as Foucault and Derrida who receive a great deal of attention in the book. The approach of these thinkers is assumed rather than explained. I was left unconvinced that readers need to think in their terms. Amin states that "Like its reading of the social world, the style of the book is hybrid, combining multidisciplinary analysis with polemical and normative intent." There is a great deal indeed of the polemical and normative in the book. It often failed to persuade.
Besides the philosophical background of the book, Amin also discusses a welter of recent studies in the social sciences. I learned from some of his sources and from the impressive bibliography of the book. In the early chapters of the book, there are insightful discussions about how tools such as the Internet change the way people respond to one another and allow for commonalities of interest among those who would in other respects be strangers. Unlike some students, Amin welcomes this development. There is also an excellent discussion about how the workplace promotes different ways of "knowing" and of doing tasks in groups. People can overcome their differences from one another to come together to perform common tasks and to develop a sense of trust in specific things while keeping their own differences.
A central chapter in the book discusses the concept of race and the ways in which the hand of the past hurtfully shapes present attitudes. In the concluding chapters of the book, Amin claims that contemporary Europe and America have been promoting a policy of repressing the stranger and the economically disadvantaged in the name of national security. He recommends a mixture of local community action together with strong action at the national government level to promote true equality. I was not convinced by the breadth of this discussion. Beyond generalities, Amin does not make clear the policies to which he objects and why. Amin want to allow the people he deems as strangers to speak and be heard in their own voices. Amin did not convince me that he extends the same principles to those individuals who might disagree with his philosophical, political, and economic proscriptions.
The book is written in a difficult style, replete with use of the passive voice, jargon, lengthy sentences, and, reflecting its philosophical preoccupations, a reluctance to speak in the first person singular. With attention, the reader can see where the author is going, but the details remain fuzzy and invite confusion.
It is hard to rate this book. Although I learned from and was challenged by it in places, the work on the whole left me frustrated, unconvinced, and cold. The Murray book in its way was an antidote to Amin's approach. Still, there is enough learning and thought in Amin's book that it cannot simply be put aside, as I was at first tempted to do. Readers interested in the issues the book raises may want to struggle with this book, but it will appeal primarily to those readers committed to a political and economic position roughly along the lines of the author's. It was valuable to have this scholarly and difficult book made available to lay readers through the Vine program. Amin's study is unlikely to have appeal to a mass readership.
Robin Friedman
March 11, 2013
Land of Strangers is billed as a challenge to the conventional contemporary wisdom of aversion towards the stranger and the politics of fear. He argues that we need a different view of the stranger rather than the ultimative--stay away or assimilate posture that some governments and peoples throughout The West have adopted.
This view is not helping keep the West safe, but contributing to other problems such as the creation of a class of the other that can be exploited, a decline in innovative capabilities, and a more militarized strategy.
Ash Amin's Land of Strangers has its good points and bad points. For one thing, segments of this book read like a Ph.D. writing for other Ph.D.'s which is a real drawback for many readers because I feel like his thesis tends to get lost in the verbiage that he uses in getting there.
On the plus side, chapters 4 and 5 about disaster politics are easily the standouts of this book and my personal favorite. The book might've been better had it been two books, rather than one. The first book could've discussed The Land of Strangers/Immigration and Integration within the EU, while a second could've discussed disaster politics.
A potentially great thesis that is marred by periods of incomprehensibility.
This view is not helping keep the West safe, but contributing to other problems such as the creation of a class of the other that can be exploited, a decline in innovative capabilities, and a more militarized strategy.
Ash Amin's Land of Strangers has its good points and bad points. For one thing, segments of this book read like a Ph.D. writing for other Ph.D.'s which is a real drawback for many readers because I feel like his thesis tends to get lost in the verbiage that he uses in getting there.
On the plus side, chapters 4 and 5 about disaster politics are easily the standouts of this book and my personal favorite. The book might've been better had it been two books, rather than one. The first book could've discussed The Land of Strangers/Immigration and Integration within the EU, while a second could've discussed disaster politics.
A potentially great thesis that is marred by periods of incomprehensibility.
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June 11, 2014http://www.full-stop.net/2013/03/11/r...
Review by Carla Hung=
Ash Amin’s new book Land of Strangers is “for an idea – that the stranger is neither friend not foe, but constitutive” of the health of societies. In alarmist tones we are warned of the perilous contemporary condition, fraught with racist biopolitics, where the stranger is cast as a foe. According to Amin, an inclusive humanism, predicated on strangers assimilating into society and becoming hand holding Kumbaya singing friends, lays waste to the different perspective that strangers brings to the table. Instead, Amin looks to material conditions to cultivate a society of collaborating participants, all strangers at the start. Amin calls this a “civility of indifference to difference” in the same heavy-handed jargon that pervades this book, characteristic of much academic writing on this subject. The dense prose regrettably detracts from the erudite, multidisciplinary bent of the project; one that could have otherwise engaged a wider audience interested in how modern technological advances, urban planning and collaborative business models have paved the way for a new politics of the stranger. As the clamoring for austerity rings hollow in Europe and seems to deepen existing social fractures, it seems wise to take Amin’s advice and cultivate an ethic where all working hands are welcome on deck.
Read more here: http://www.full-stop.net/2013/03/11/r...
Review by Carla Hung=
Ash Amin’s new book Land of Strangers is “for an idea – that the stranger is neither friend not foe, but constitutive” of the health of societies. In alarmist tones we are warned of the perilous contemporary condition, fraught with racist biopolitics, where the stranger is cast as a foe. According to Amin, an inclusive humanism, predicated on strangers assimilating into society and becoming hand holding Kumbaya singing friends, lays waste to the different perspective that strangers brings to the table. Instead, Amin looks to material conditions to cultivate a society of collaborating participants, all strangers at the start. Amin calls this a “civility of indifference to difference” in the same heavy-handed jargon that pervades this book, characteristic of much academic writing on this subject. The dense prose regrettably detracts from the erudite, multidisciplinary bent of the project; one that could have otherwise engaged a wider audience interested in how modern technological advances, urban planning and collaborative business models have paved the way for a new politics of the stranger. As the clamoring for austerity rings hollow in Europe and seems to deepen existing social fractures, it seems wise to take Amin’s advice and cultivate an ethic where all working hands are welcome on deck.
Read more here: http://www.full-stop.net/2013/03/11/r...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews