Conclusion

Abstract

Zienkowski concludes that political awareness and engagement require reflexive rearticulations of one’s sense of self with a dynamic network of signifiers, identities, practices and institutions. It also implies the articulation of interpretive logics that challenge hegemonic discourse. Debates about equality, diversity and integration can be counted among the most emotionally challenging language games subjects may engage in. Political awareness often emerges in response to emotionally challenging feelings of misrecognition. Without a metapragmatic ability to articulate such experiences to political theories, explanations or narratives, subjects run the risk of getting ensnared in hegemonic logics that leave little room for reflexivity and critique. A heightened degree of metapragmatic and political awareness allows subjects to loosen—but not to lose—the interpretive and ideological hold of hegemony.