Becoming through detachment

identity dislocations and rearticulations in contemporary protests

Abstract

This article contributes to the growing literature around the idea of a politics of becoming, by emphasizing its deconstructive dimension, which is at the very heart of three key works in democratic debates. We argue that politics emerges in the process of deconstruction/displacement of subjects, as shown by Laclau & Mouffe, by Judith Butler and by Jacques Rancière in different ways. We, then, move to a brief illustration of how the ideas of these authors are relevant to make sense of contemporary protests, focusing specifically on the Brazilian 2013 demonstrations.