Benjamin Boudou worked on borders in democracy and the norms that govern the inclusion and exclusion of migrants. He was particularly interested in the representation of non-citizens and the contentious mobilizations of values such as sanctuary, civility, hospitality or solidarity.
He previously was senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po, and Fox international fellow at Yale University. He is the editor of the French journal of political theory Raisons Politiques.
Contact: benjamin.boudou@univ-rennes1.fr
Research Projects
Heroic Citizenship
This project examines the ethical, political and legal issues of “heroism” as a condition for citizenship acquisition. I examine situations where fast-track citizenship, long-term residence permits or immediate naturalization have been offered as a reward for exceptional acts of selfless and risky altruism. I aim to answer four questions: a political one (what are the ideological and political conditions for heroic citizenship to be possible?), a legal one (how is law mobilized to allow such exceptional measures?), a conceptual one (how does heroic citizenship affect the conceptualization of citizenship through notions of deservingness, performance, civic virtues of altruism and sacrifice?), and a normative one (is heroic citizenship desirable?).
Representing Non-Citizens
This project explores the normative relevance of the representation of non-citizens in democracies. I argue that representation within nation-states constitutes a realistic institutionalisation of the All-Affected Principle, allowing justificatory practices towards non-citizens and establishing political institutions that can realise the ideal of inclusion of all externally affected individuals. I analyze electoral, non-electoral and surrogate forms of representation of affected interests that satisfy both the cosmopolitan concern for the equal consideration of interests and the statist defence of a territorially and civically bounded demos. I assess piecemeal implementations of representation practices, namely reciprocal representation, ombudspersons, self-appointed representatives and deliberative and advocacy groups. Gradual and pluralised means of representation constitute necessary and feasible first steps to consider affected interests and offer an alternative route to an all-or-nothing defence of inclusion as national enfranchisement.
Selected Publications
Books
2018. Le dilemme des frontières: Éthique et politique de l’immigration. Editions de l’EHESS
2017. Politique de l’hospitalité: Une généalogie conceptuelle. CNRS Editions
Papers
2022. Representing Non-Citizens: A Proposal for the Inclusion of All Affected Interests, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, online first
2021. Migration and the critique of ‘state thought’: Abdelmalek Sayad as a political theorist, European Journal of Political Theory, online first
2021. Beyond the Welcoming Rhetoric: Hospitality as a Principle of Care for the Displaced, Essays in Philosophy, 22(1/2), 85-101
2021. Sacred Welcomes: How Religious Reasons, Structures, and Interactions Shape Refugee Advocacy and Settlement (with Hans Leaman and Max Scholz), Migration and Society, 4(1), 100-109
2020. Migration and the Duty of Hospitality: A Genealogical Sketch, Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 4(2), 257-274
2016. What is political theory for?, Raisons politiques, 64, 7-27
2012. The Crossing of the Political: Derrida and Ricœur between the Purity of Philosophy and the Tragic Dimension of Action, Raisons politiques, 45, 211-233
Chapters
2019. Hospitality in Sanctuary Cities, in Sharon M. Meagher, Samantha Noll, Joseph S. Biehl (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the City, Routledge, 279-290
2018. Language proficiency and migration: An argument against testing (with A. v. Busekist), in M. Gazzola, T. Templin, B.-A. Wickström (eds), Language Policy and Linguistic Justice: Economic, Philosophical and Sociolinguistic Approaches, Berlin, Springer, 189-208
Book reviews
2020. An Urban Turn in the Ethics of Migration? Review of Avner de Shalit, Cities and Immigrants: Political and Moral Dilemmas in the New Era of Migration, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2018, Raisons politiques, 79, 2020, 109-121