Can dead bodies do politics? Decolonising Rancière through the Philippine drug war

Abstract

This paper challenges conventional understandings of political subjectivity by examining dead bodies produced through violent state policies rooted in colonial histories, with particular attention to the drug war. It opens critical conversations about the intersections of violence, colonialism and political agency, which remain underexplored in mainstream political theory. I substantiate my argument on the subjectivity of dead bodies by using Rancière's notion of political subjectivity and, at the same time, go beyond Rancière by claiming that his notion of political subjectivity highlights the role of bodies in politics, but the way that he does so is dismissive of the effects of colonial violence on specific subjects. By engaging with Rancière's influential concept of political subjectivity while exposing its limitations in accounting for colonial violence, the paper contributes to both expanding and decolonising political theory.