The Freedom to Stay

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.