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Expressive Freedom on Campus and the Conceptual Elasticity of Harm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2020

Dax D'Orazio
Dax D'Orazio*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Alberta, Tory Building, 10th Floor, 116 Street and 85 Avenue, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3
*
*Corresponding author. Email: dorazio@ualberta.ca
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Abstract

High-profile controversies have created an impression that expressive freedom is imperilled on university campuses in North America. Analyses of this alleged campus crisis typically focus either on the negative psychosocial characteristics of those who oppose potentially harmful expression or on the cynical ways that expressive freedom can be invoked to normalize harmful expression. Conversely, I argue that theories of harm are key to understanding the contemporary discourse and politics of expressive freedom on campus. To shift the frame of analysis, I critically analyze three interrelated theoretical concepts that feature elastic conceptualizations of harm and are consequential for expressive limits in an academic environment: epistemic injustice, argumentational injustice and epistemic exploitation. I argue that all three concepts require a distinction between testimony and argumentation in order to better balance protection from harm, on the one hand, and expressive freedom and open inquiry, on the other.

Résumé

Résumé

Des controverses très médiatisées ont donné l'impression que la liberté d'expression est en péril sur les campus universitaires en Amérique du Nord. Les analyses de cette prétendue crise des campus se concentrent généralement sur les caractéristiques psychosociales négatives de ceux qui s'opposent à une expression potentiellement délétère ou sur les façons cyniques dont la liberté d'expression peut être invoquée pour normaliser une expression nuisible. À l'inverse, je soutiens que les théories du préjudice sont essentielles pour comprendre le discours contemporain et la politique de la liberté d'expression sur les campus. Pour en modifier le cadre, je formule une analyse critique axée sur trois concepts théoriques interdépendants qui présentent des conceptualisations élastiques du préjudice et qui sont la conséquence des limites expressives dans un environnement universitaire : l'injustice épistémique, l'injustice argumentative et l'exploitation épistémique. Je soutiens que ces trois concepts nécessitent une distinction entre témoignage et argumentation afin de mieux équilibrer la protection contre le préjudice d'une part, et la liberté d'expression et l'enquête ouverte d'autre part.

Keywords

political theoryfreedom of expressionacademiaepistemic injusticeharmThéorie politiqueliberté d'expressionmilieu universitaireinjustice épistémiquepréjudice
Type
Research Article/Étude originale
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 755 - 776
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2020

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