My work is at the intersection of subjectivity and public life, the ways in which human well-being depends upon people’s abilities and opportunities to help shape their common world — which I take to be central to democracy.  Accordingly, in my view, to be told that one does not matter, that what one cares about will never be heeded, is to be effectively stripped of the title of citizen.  This is the form that political evil takes.

Alternatively, real democracy means that everyone affected by common matters should have a voice and the power to shape these matters. Such power is rarely given but rather claimed. My work focuses on the deep roots that stand in the way of making such claims, on  how such claims are in fact enacted, and on how democracy can flourish even in the face of anti-politial and anti-democratic forces, including the ones that people impose on themselves.