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Paper short abstract

Based on fieldwork in Chemnitz, it will be reflected upon methodological approaches, practical limitations, as well as conditions and possibilities of alteritarian movements in identitarian times.

Paper long abstract

In 2018, the violent excesses against People of Colour and journalists in the Saxonian City of Chemnitz benchmarked incrementally blurry boundaries between right-wing-populism and -radicalism in Germany: 'Anxious citizens' had no reservations walking side by side with a whole range of organized neo-Nazis anymore, corroborating the increasing normalization of political violence in Europe.

Empirically exemplified by my ongoing field-research in Chemnitz, I will reflect upon my analytical approach: Aggressive Identitarianism can always be practiced one-sidedly, by boundary-drawing and fighting against difference and diversity. Defensively emancipative and thus practically necessary identity-politics can always be practiced one-sidedly as well, by boundary-drawing and fighting against privilege - but then structurally competing with other identifications for socio-cultural recognition and public visibility. Alterity-politics by contrast is practically based in mutual responsibility, ethical commitment and dialogue with conflicting identifications, where solidarity beyond identity arises: It requires a voluntary questioning of socio-cultural identifications and privileges. It is the process of debordering, creating new common ground, creating new, open and 'hybrid' alterities beyond the conventional logics of identity-related boundary-maintenance. Alterity-politics is the other mode of the political in diametric opposition to the practically one-sided logics of identity-politics in general, with the fundamental weakness in practice, that it cannot be practiced least enforced one-sidedly, but only accomplished in mutual agreement.

Elaborating logics of practice in conflict from my previous studies with regard to relational conflict-dynamics between identitarianism, identity-politics and alterity-politics, methodological approaches, practical limitations, as well as conditions and possibilities of alteritarian movements in identitarian times will be outlined.