Connected by Commitment: Oppression and Our Responsibility to Undermine It

Saying that political and social oppression is a deeply unjust and widespread condition of life is not a terribly controversial statement. Likewise, theorists of justice frequently consider our obligation to not turn a blind eye to oppression. But what is our culpability in the endurance of oppression? In this book, Mara Marin complicates the primary ways in which we make sense of human and political relationships and our obligations within them. Rather than thinking of relationships in terms of our intentions, Marin thinks of them as open-ended and subject to ongoing commitments. Commitments create open-ended expectations and vulnerabilities on the part of others, and therefore also obligations. By this rationale, our actions sustain oppressive or productive structures in virtue of their cumulative effects, not the intentions of the actors.When we violate our obligations we oppress others. Over the chapters of her book, Marin applies her model of commitment to caregivers, marriage, and bargaining power between labor and employers, and examines three types of social relations: political-legal relations, intimate relations of care, and work relations. By linking habitual action to obligation, Marin argues that we should see our responsibilities within such relationships as political and as creating norms for behavior over time. Commitment both points to the support our actions give to oppressive structures and to the ways in which our actions can weaken the same structures. Connected by Commitment examines our obligations to transform structures of oppression and offers commitment as a model for solidarity across race, gender, and class.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 - What Are Commitments? Chapter 2 - Modeling Commitment for Structural Relations Chapter 3 - Laws, Judgment, and Political Obligations of Commitment Chapter 4 - Care, Oppression, and Marriage as Commitment Chapter 5 - Labor Relations and the Politics of Commitment Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Mara Marin is Postdoctoral Associate at the Centre for Ethics at University of Toronto.

Review :
"In her insightful and highly original book, Mara Marin offers a new way of explaining how social relations generate obligations to act in ways that undermine oppression." -- Ann E. Cudd, University of Pittsburgh "A powerful-and empowering-response to the 'circle of powerlessness and denial' that so many of us experience in the face of structural oppression. Connected by Commitment reminds us that our roles in perpetuating structures of oppression themselves contain possibilities for political transformation, and it offers an incisive account of the forms of action and commitment needed to make good on those emancipatory possibilities." --Sharon Krause, author of Freedom Beyond Sovereignty "This is a brilliant and extremely timely book. Mara Marin challenges readers to think about the responsibility to transform oppressive structures such as gender and racial domination. The book is also a hopeful account that shows how social relations generate norms of responsibility. Connected by Commitment is a theoretically sophisticated book that no political theorist should miss." -Margaret Kohn, author of The Death and Life of the Urban Commonwealth "Through her innovative concept of commitment, Marin shows us how to rethink our ongoing yet hidden support for unjust institutions. Focusing on law, care, and work, Marin provides us with a way to understand how our everyday actions support, but could undermine, injustice. This book makes a vital contribution, then, towards a more just world." --Joan C. Tronto, author of Caring Democracy "Marin develops an original concept of commitment, which offers new understandings of human relationship, of obligation, and of oppression and the paths to ending it. Every political theorist interested in equality should read this exceptional book." --Jennifer Nedelsky, author of Law's Relations "In her insightful and highly original book, Mara Marin offers a new way of explaining how social relations generate obligations to act in ways that undermine oppression." -- Hypatia