It is not otiose to assert that the themes of inclusion and exclusion adequately capture, if not define, some of the most central issues, questions, and problems that confront us today.
To a great extent, social-political matters – on local, global, and virtual levels – and issues concerning selfhood, embodiment, and personal nature are determined by an antecedent demarcation of what is deemed to be essential and relevant, from what is judged to be external and superfluous. Yet, it is not enough to make explicit the constitutive role of such, often tacit, demarcations on our theoretical practices. We must also acknowledge that these demarcations are neither static, trans-historical, nor extraneous to our human nature. With the rise of globalization and the ubiquity of technology, questions posed by the dichotomy of inclusion and exclusion become all the more relevant. Indeed, we live in a world where boundaries between countries, religions, political structures, cultures, and individuals are constantly being drawn, questioned, torn down, and reconstructed: boundaries that call into question our inherited beliefs and ideologies, and also our very concepts of what constitutes a nation and an individual.
A malleable and ever-changing social-political, religious, and intellectual environment inevitably gives rise to a dynamic and active individual.
