Laicism as a discursive hegemony

Abstract

Discursive reformulation of the concept of laicism, from secularization to the current intercultural version, continues to affirm the separation of public and private spheres. The hegemony of laicism, as discursive over-determination has managed to assure certain nodal points that give consistency and stability, without omitting its precarious nature. The defense of pluralism, human rights and civic participation bounded in the public arena has led to the articulation of an open and dynamic discourse formation. Groups and religious associations act as positioned subjects and use their capital (social, symbolic, political, economic, moral ...) to play in this discursive field, always tense and changing. Religion is the milieu where moving subjects (individual and collective), whose identities are relational and therefore contingent, multiple and unfinished, are always open to the power games. Laicism as a hegemonic discourse is matched, in the context of an ethical-political liberal project, to the struggle for democracy, egalitarianism and pluralism, opting for peaceful coexistence, despite being aware that it is an unattainable utopia.