The Freedom to Stay
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 25. September 2026
Book
Hardback
144 pages
978-1-5095-7429-2 (ISBN)
Description
As the habitable areas of the Earth shrink under climate change, and as many governments around the world adopt measures to deport migrants and refugees, it is time to reexamine our traditional notion of freedom.
In the Western tradition, freedom is generally understood in relation to space: it is the freedom of movement and the freedom not to be obstructed in one's movement by the state or anyone else. In The Freedom to Stay, von Redecker puts forward the radical argument that we should think of freedom in temporal rather than spatial terms. This means thinking of freedom as the capacity to endure in time and to have the time to be and do as one wishes. This reorientation aligns human liberty with ecological concerns.
Combining vivid personal narrative with rigorous philosophical argument, von Redecker shows that freedom is best realized when understood as fulfilled time. The political act of staying ties freedom to material conditions. It requires that habitable space be provided for everyone, including all nonhuman forms of life around us. Staying also reconnects freedom with desire. It channels the urge to live in all creatures, celebrates the ensuing abundance, and honors the specifically human aspiration for free and fulfilled time.
In the Western tradition, freedom is generally understood in relation to space: it is the freedom of movement and the freedom not to be obstructed in one's movement by the state or anyone else. In The Freedom to Stay, von Redecker puts forward the radical argument that we should think of freedom in temporal rather than spatial terms. This means thinking of freedom as the capacity to endure in time and to have the time to be and do as one wishes. This reorientation aligns human liberty with ecological concerns.
Combining vivid personal narrative with rigorous philosophical argument, von Redecker shows that freedom is best realized when understood as fulfilled time. The political act of staying ties freedom to material conditions. It requires that habitable space be provided for everyone, including all nonhuman forms of life around us. Staying also reconnects freedom with desire. It channels the urge to live in all creatures, celebrates the ensuing abundance, and honors the specifically human aspiration for free and fulfilled time.
Reviews / Votes
"Eva von Redecker brings her profound philosophical gaze and her delicate pen to one of our most important problems. How did modern western freedom produce so much earthly and social destruction? And how might we be free otherwise - free to dwell, not only flee, and free across time, not only in the moment? A splendid book with which to think and build an urgently needed new politics."Wendy Brown, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
"As the world and everything we know about it melt into a brutal cacophony of change, Eva von Redecker, with her flawless philosophical elegance and inherently poetic vision, points out the heart of the matter for humanity: our right to stay and our need to remain human. Her book radically changes the idea of freedom while answering our innermost needs as humans today."
Ece Temelkuran, writer
"Philosophers have been wrestling for centuries with what it means to be free, whether we can be free at all, and why freedom would be valuable. Eva's book is an amazing and original contribution to that tradition."
Annelien De Dijn, Utrecht University
"Eva's book is a valuable contribution for all human rights defenders in academia and practice to counter the infamous discussions on migration we are all facing now."
Wolfgang Kaleck, General Secretary, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-7429-2 (9781509574292)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
Eva von Redecker
The Freedom to Stay
Book
approx. 09/2026
1st Edition
Polity Press
€19.00
Not yet published
Persons
Eva von Redecker is a philosopher and non-fiction writer based in rural Brandenburg in Germany.
Content
The Arrival of the Swallows
1. An Abundance of Time
2. Fulfilled Time
3. Time of Abundance
1. An Abundance of Time
2. Fulfilled Time
3. Time of Abundance