ABSTRACT
Drawing upon sociologist Michael Billig’s notion of ‘banal nationalism’, ‘banal dehumanisation’ refers to a mundane denial of a person’s humanity so that, through the activities and speech acts of daily life and underlying institutional arrangements, someone can be constructed out of the scope of consideration for justice. 1 This comes in three forms. First, there is the dehumanisation that locates individuals as below other people in a hierarchy of concern. Second, there is the dehumanisation that denies individuals’ existence altogether. Finally, there are the alterations of the frame within which s/he can live out her/is own humanity.
