This talk explores the conceptions of solidarity at work in practices of solidarity with ‘precarious migrants’ who are engaged in contesting the government of transnational movement and in virtue of this activity are exposed to border violence. In doing so, it aims to shed light both on how to conceptualise the phenomenon of solidarity with precarious migrants and on the relationship of practices of solidarity to displacement as process, condition and, finally, a contemporary form of life. David Owen will argue that we can distinguish between different modalities of solidarity that stand in different relationships to governmental power and to displacement, and that doing so helps to clarify both the ethical and political stakes of solidarity with precarious migrants.

David Owen is Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Southampton. In 2024-25 he was Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, co-convening the themes seminar ‘The Politics of Migration and Displacement as a Form of Life’ with Professor Didier Fassin. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Academy of Social Sciences. His most recent books are What Do We Owe to Refugees? (Polity 2025) and the co-edited volume The Political Philosophy of Internal Displacement (OUP 2024, with Jamie Draper).

The seminar will be followed by drinks in the Hall.

Registration not required.

All enquiries should be directed to rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk.