Contradictions of Freedom

Irm Haleem is Senior Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Core (ICC--Ethics & Civics) and a faculty member in Public Policy and Global Affairs program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyyang Technological University, Singapore.

'Irm Haleem has put together a powerful and insightful argument about the pursuit of freedom in oppressive environments. She cogently unpacks the contradictions underlying the pursuit of freedom. Contextual realities shape the strategies of freedom movements. Hence, oppressive contexts require compromises that challenge definitions of freedom. The path to freedom in these oppressive contexts can entail, if not mandate, a level of moral and practical conformity that may undermine the essence of freedom altogether.'Amaney Jamal, Professor of Politics, Dean of Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.'In Contradictions of Freedom, Irm Haleem asks why the pursuit of freedom so reliably produces its own forms of constraints, where even joining resistance movements becomes inseparable from an act of self-subordination. She distinguishes between norm-eroding (left-wing) and norm-preserving (right-wing) resistance movements, illuminating the shared structural dynamics across these movements that are typically studied in isolation. For scholars of social movements, political sociology, and contentious politics, this book offers a philosophical account of what movement participants are actually doing when they organize and resist — and what it costs them.'Leslie Bunnage, Associate Professor of Sociology, Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA.'Irm Haleem has written a courageous book that explores perhaps the central human value in all of its complexity. Haleem explains how freedom can be found in seemingly unfree contexts, how freedom movements are often themselves necessarily sites of unfreedom, and how people often willfully choose unfreedom. Yet importantly, despite these apparent contradictions, Haleem never shies away from making judgements on what is right, and what is wrong. Indeed, Haleem’s book can be read as an effort to rescue moral responsibility, sympathetically but decisively. This book is a model for how to take the pluralistic realities of the human condition seriously.'Eric Cheng, Assistant Professor of Public Policy & Global Affairs, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

• Introduction: Sense of Freedom 1. Autonomy under Oppression 2. Conformity as Freedom 3. Resistance through Conformity 4. Evils of Responsibility