Community, violence and the passerby: Nancy and Mbembe on our being-in-common in a globalised world

Abstract

This article critically reconsiders the question of community in light of recent global crises that reveal the fragility and inequality of global solidarity. Drawing on the philosophies of Jean-Luc Nancy and Achille Mbembe, this article explores how our fundamental existential condition – being-in-the-world with others – not only enables the global circulation of capital, goods and viruses, as well as violence and exploitation rooted in colonial and capitalist histories, but also opens up the possibility for rethinking community on the basis of this shared ontological condition. The argument unfolds across four sections, each addressing a different dimension of this relational ontology and its ethical implications. The first section examines capitalism’s often-overlooked theological and colonial underpinnings, especially how Christianity was historically used to justify slavery and global economic domination. The second section addresses how this history reveals a deeper ontological violence in our shared existence. The third section proposes a rethinking of community that does not rely on identity or sameness, but instead emphasises spatial and ethical openness to others. In the final section, the figure of the passerby is introduced as a way of imagining community that exceeds the traditional logic of hospitality, extending ethical responsibility beyond familiar spaces to all the places through which we move. By interrogating the ontological foundations of globalisation and reimagining community beyond static or exclusionary forms, the article outlines a new ethical framework for co-existence in a fractured world.