Abstract
Using Anna Tsingâs much acclaimed monograph Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (2005), I attempt to sketch out a framework of âengaged universalismâ in this essay. In opposition to the usual celebration of the universal as a powerful force, I argue that a theory of engaged universalism must simultaneously view the particular as powerful and the universal as contingent. Drawing on debates around area studies, cultural relativism, and transnational feminism, I explore the universal category of âFreedomââunderstood in its liberal, emancipatory, Western formulationâto assert that every universal is, in the ultimate analysis, a particular. This acknowledgment opens up possibilities for the rearticulation of categories that currently âspeak in the name of the universalâ but are always already contingent.
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