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Introduction: Ubuntu1 Unchained—A Travelling Concept

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Ubuntu Strategies
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Abstract

In the introduction to Ubuntu Strategies, Stuit traces how ubuntu has been theorized in different disciplines, focusing on how these ubuntu discourses often perpetuate uncritical assumptions about a universal notion of common humanity that forms the basis of the ubuntu concept. By critically investigating the equation of ubuntu with the concept of hospitality, Stuit brings to the fore that ubuntu is in fact an ambiguous concept that can lead to the social exclusion as well as inclusion of what is assumed to be human. Stuit argues for an analysis of ubuntu through the lens of the strategic, which acknowledges the pervasiveness of power relations in everyday practices and takes into account that ubuntu is not a given, but can involve conscious, strategic decisions.

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Stuit, H. (2016). Introduction: Ubuntu1 Unchained—A Travelling Concept. In: Ubuntu Strategies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58009-2_1

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