Fantasy of Conviviality: Banalities of Multicultural Settings and What We Do (Not) Notice When We Look at Them

This contribution looks back at the last years of the conviviality debate which attempts to grasp the chimerical nature of mundane human encounters. It uses the term ‘fantasy’ to point to how conviviality emerges in the literature as an imaginary of the relationship between me/us and them/others. It argues that this imaginary is embedded in the Western modern normative order that perceives of an individual as a collaborating social being. It argues that shifting of the debate’s attention away from collaboration of individuals towards sociality would be productive and allow us to address issues otherwise omitted, such as relations of family, friendship, care, intimacy, private sphere, power and identity and gender relations. In turn, Thinking of conviviality beyond the Western modern imaginary could thus help us it developing the full potential of the term conviviality.

Keywords: Modernity; Social imaginary; Social individual; Civility; Collaboration