Facing a crisis of 'unlikely' relationships? Discourses of friendship and alliance across differences

摘要

Few would disagree that friendship plays immensely important roles in life and in society. However, the reality is that most of us rarely befriend someone who is more different from than similar to us (e.g. the stranger, the other, or the alien). This gap motivates this essay and also the three books that I will review below. Some of the underlying questions that the selected books address include: What constitutes 'unlikely' relationships? What roles do identity, culture, and communication play in rendering certain relationships likely and others unlikely? How can unlikely relationships become likely? In particular, for voluntary and uninstitutionalized relationships like friendship and alliance, why does it matter if some people are just unlikely friends and/or allies? In the following space, I will first review each of the three selected books. Then, following a brief summary of each book, I offer my evaluations that are accompanied by relevant literature. Lastly, I look across the three books to make synthesis and observations on the subject of friendship and/or alliance for social justice, as multicultural discourses, and as praxis.