Congist'26: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Crisis

Radical Democracy against State Crises: The Case of The Jungle (2017)

D1-S1-A9

13 May 2026, 14:40

20m

A9 (Istanbul University Faculty of Letters)

Oral Presentation Session 1.4 (Day 1)

Speaker

Pelin Doğan Özger (Munzur University)

Description

This study examines Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s 2017 play The Jungle within the context of the human rights and democratic crises resulting from states’ refugee and asylum policies. The play lays bare the uncertainties and social invisibility that shape the everyday experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. At the same time, by revealing the crisis conditions produced by sovereign states, it offers a critical basis for reimagining democracy. Against this backdrop, the study’s theoretical framework draws on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s theory of radical democracy. This radical conception of democracy involves not only electoral processes and representation, but also the articulation and visibility of antagonisms, identities, and demands. The study frames the refugee camp (a dramatisation of the Jungle refugee camp in Calais) as a site of crisis where refugees’ right to life is suspended, leaving them unrecognised and marginalised. Yet within this territory of “great desperation and chaos,” the creation of a theatre space demonstrates refugees’ resilience and their determination to assert themselves, with theatre serving as a form of intervention, unveiling the political and democratic significance inherent in the crisis.
This study aims to scrutinise how the right to life and democratic demands of refugees are dramatised through theatre, and how the state and border regimes transform this struggle into a crisis environment. The Jungle is not just a humanitarian tragedy involving refugees; it is also crucial for reflecting on the limitations and crises of sovereign states through the lens of radical democracy. At the same time, the refugees’ own resistance strategies cast them not only as victims, but also as engaged political actors. The study views the crisis as both a challenge and an opportunity for democratic transformation, examining it in relation to anti-democratic state policies and the urgent need to rebuild a radical democratic sphere.