Invisibility: From Discrimination to Resistance

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe paper takes heed of the fact that, when evaluating normative issues through the semantics of visibility and invisibility, a transfer takes place from optical to political semantics which is not without consequences. The paper attempts a typology of the extremely diverse functions (in)visibility takes in current discourses, moving from the characterization of situations of discrimination to that of the resistance to it. In a first step, it analyses the affirmative uses of the notion of political visibilisation, whether of individuals, groups or concerns, that fashion themselves as targeted answers to discrimination. In a second step, it looks at the politics of invisibilisation, stealth, and opaqueness, claiming emancipatory and critical potential in resisting the limelight of public space. Specifically, it assesses whether the traditional connect of politicization and public visibility still holds true in all cases. In a third part, the paper suggests a possible reorganization of the polarity of visibility and invisibility as one that runs along the continuum between determinacy and indeterminacy, indicating its effects for patterns of discrimination as well as for practices of resistance.