Everybody, Refugees, Assembly and the West: The Power of Naming

The performance of naming social phenomena is a distinctive, if not the distinctive, feature of politics. This Aristotelian view is often understood in a quasi-biblical sense according to which naming is the key step for giving existence to things and elements. In the contemporary democratic age, the linguistic aspect of the process of representation is also often pointed to. In practice, political representation supposes indeed to name the represented and the representatives. Yet, a more general political meaning of the naming process can also be suggested. Linguistic conflicts on how to name a given group or a phenomenon do not necessarily create these groups and phenomena. Arguably, they contribute first and foremost to frame the collective understanding of what is at stake. Actors’ political strategies are therefore, in part, linguistic ones for imposing names, concepts and meanings. As other kinds of strategies, they may fail or win: the understanding of what is meant by a given word may or may not be challenged – as the degree of agreement on how to designate such group or such process.