
Against Innocence
Undoing and Remaking the World
Miriam Ticktin(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 12. December 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-226-83873-1 (ISBN)
Description
A provocative critique of how the concept of innocence functions in contemporary politics and society.
In this timely and bold book, Miriam Ticktin explores how a concept that consistently appears as a moral good actually ends up creating harm for so many. Claims to innocence protect migrant children, but often at the expense of their parents; claims to the innocence of the fetus work to punish women. Ticktin shows how innocence structures political relationships, focusing on individual victims and saviors, while foreclosing forms of collective responsibility. Ultimately, she wants to understand how the discourse around innocence functions, what gives it such power, and why we are so compelled by it, while showing that alternative political forms already exist. She examines this process across various domains, from migration, science, and environmentalism to racial and reproductive justice.
Throughout the book, Ticktin shows how the concept of innocence intimately shapes why, how, and for whom we should care and whose lives matter-and how this can have devastating consequences when only an exceptional few can qualify as innocent. A politics grounded on innocence justifies a world built on inequality, designating most people-especially the racialized poor-as unworthy, undeserving, and less than human. As an alternative, she explores the aesthetics and politics of "commoning"-a collective regime of living that refuses a liberal politics of individual identity and victimhood.
In this timely and bold book, Miriam Ticktin explores how a concept that consistently appears as a moral good actually ends up creating harm for so many. Claims to innocence protect migrant children, but often at the expense of their parents; claims to the innocence of the fetus work to punish women. Ticktin shows how innocence structures political relationships, focusing on individual victims and saviors, while foreclosing forms of collective responsibility. Ultimately, she wants to understand how the discourse around innocence functions, what gives it such power, and why we are so compelled by it, while showing that alternative political forms already exist. She examines this process across various domains, from migration, science, and environmentalism to racial and reproductive justice.
Throughout the book, Ticktin shows how the concept of innocence intimately shapes why, how, and for whom we should care and whose lives matter-and how this can have devastating consequences when only an exceptional few can qualify as innocent. A politics grounded on innocence justifies a world built on inequality, designating most people-especially the racialized poor-as unworthy, undeserving, and less than human. As an alternative, she explores the aesthetics and politics of "commoning"-a collective regime of living that refuses a liberal politics of individual identity and victimhood.
Reviews / Votes
"Ticktin's lucid book is a challenge and a promise. She shows how difficult it is to free political and moral imagination from the peculiar category of innocence. But such effort can resolve into the opportunity-and obligation-to refresh conviviality, in persistent opposition to partition, efficiency, and despair." * Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of Abolition Geography * "From the debates on immigration to the justification of mass violence, our moral world is divided between innocent and guilty, legitimizing either protection or oppression. Ticktin's important and profound book unveils the political and ethical stakes of this problematic distinction." * Didier Fassin, College de France * "Building on Ticktin's earlier work on the new humanitarianism, Against Innocence takes that initial, important intervention in broader, groundbreaking directions." * Nadia Abu El-Haj, Barnard College and Columbia University *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
13 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-83873-1 (9780226838731)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Miriam Ticktin is professor of anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center and director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics. She is the author of Casualties of Care and the coeditor of In the Name of Humanity.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Against Innocence, Beyond Innocence
1. The Power of Racial Innocence: Liberals, Illiberals, and Humanitarians
2. The Innocence of Inequality: Defining the Refugee-Child
3. The Science of Innocence: Absolving the Queer and the Criminal
4. Innocence as Planetary Politics: Animals, the Fetus, and Mother Nature
5. Beyond Innocence: Toward a Commoning World
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Against Innocence, Beyond Innocence
1. The Power of Racial Innocence: Liberals, Illiberals, and Humanitarians
2. The Innocence of Inequality: Defining the Refugee-Child
3. The Science of Innocence: Absolving the Queer and the Criminal
4. Innocence as Planetary Politics: Animals, the Fetus, and Mother Nature
5. Beyond Innocence: Toward a Commoning World
Notes
Bibliography
Index