THE PROBLEM OF DISLOCATION

Author

• Leslie M. Murray, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Auxier, Randall

Abstract

This dissertation develops a process-oriented “systematic narrative ontology” grounded in the lived experience of dislocation and the ongoing work of placemaking. The case is descriptive but methodologically grounded as a sort of hermeneutic interpretation of lived experience. As such, the narrative is not a formal argument but rather seeks to be a compelling description. Hence, there is no thesis beyond the assertion that dislocation is our human condition. Rather than treating persons, things, and places as fixed units, I argue that reality is composed through “passage,” the rhythmic movement by which potential becomes actual and by which identity is continually revised. Dislocation is a structural condition of existence, and although it is a chronic problem, it is not a rare crisis. We live in the passage between what might be and what becomes real, and our lives take shape through the cuts with the past and decisions that continually address that tension.

The project advances a triadic framework. “Ontologics” describe the structural realities of person, thing, and place. “Implicatives” name the temporally inherited pressures, histories, and orientations that press forward into the present: especially under the headings of normativity, stability, and belonging. “Explicatives” are the temporally visible (sensible) practices, institutions, and performances that address those pressures in shared form: especially absorption, purification, and commodification. These three domains are gathered through “encompassing,” a general term for existential inclusion, the process by which beings are taken up into relational configurations that both shape them and are shaped by them in return. “Shaping,” in this account, is reciprocal formation. We are formed by the worlds we inhabit, and we help form those worlds through our passage.

Modern life intensifies dislocation through commodification and technological acceleration. When persons and places are reduced to exchangeable units, relational depth thins and belonging becomes fragile. Stability is misidentified with control, and growth becomes an unquestioned imperative. This work argues instead for a pragmatic reeducation of normativity, stability, and belonging. Stability is reconceived as patterned endurance through passage. Belonging is negotiated participation rather than possession. Normativity is a revisable guide for conduct within living networks, not an absolute endpoint.

Drawing in part from process philosophy, pragmatism, actor-network theory, and phenomenology, the dissertation offers an ethics of regard grounded in proportion. Practices such as migration, fasting, ritual, and memorialization are examined as sites where absorption, purification, and resistance to commodification can be tested. Placemaking is understood not as sealing oneself against dislocation but as learning how to inhabit one’s dislocations well, while flourishing.

This project reframes the good life as the disciplined cultivation of proportion within a world always in motion, accepting the reality of dislocation. To engage the future is to compose dislocation responsibly, sustaining relational integrity among persons, things, and places while remaining open to renewal.