Noncitizenism 17 The core canon in liberal political theory and even global justice theory still primarily derives from a narrow pool of thinkers,23 located largely in wealthy English-speaking universities in rich countries. Charles Mills argues that the reason race, for example, has often been absent from liberal theoretical discourses is that: … group experience and group privilege play a role in influencing concerns and interests. We would expect that those who have historically been the beneficiaries of racial injustice would tend to have less interest in exploring the topic than those who have been its victims.24 He argues that the construction of theory as raceless, for example, by those who have not experienced race as a problem, makes it difficult to critique or even to see race-based injustices within it. Similarly, and more broadly, assuming that all people can be neatly organised according to contemporary citizenships makes it difficult to examine the implications of noncitizenship as anything other than the lack of, or deviation from, the norm – the norm of citizenship. The idea that knowledge is ‘located’ or ‘situated’ is not new, and there is a body of work examining how to address this in political and social spheres, as well as theory.25 Feminist and intersectional philosophers, for example, argue that some social problems are just not visible from a ‘male’ or ‘White’ gaze.26 And indeed, the insiders of the liberal democratic insider theory have traditionally been White and male – and primarily relating as citizens. When asked to describe the world, we describe it as we know it. Theorists can only ever theorise what they know to be there – and if the theoretical framework and the institutions upon which it is based are serving those theorists well, what reason is there to suppose that it is missing some people out? As more diverse voices are included in the theoretical canon, it becomes possible for all theorists to develop richer approaches. On a theoretical level, Phillip Cole takes this further to say we have thereby constructed a theory that privileges the voices of insiders and makes it impossible for outsiders’ voices to feed into the theory’s reconstruction.27 And yet, precisely because of the rational basis of liberalism (centred around the individual, the equality of dignity and freedom, aiming at universalism), a self-reflective 23 See Anke Graness (2015) ‘Is the Debate on “Global Justice” a Global One? Some Considerations in View of Modern Philosophy in Africa’, pp. 126–140 in Journal of Global Ethics 11(1). 24 Mills 2015 ibid. 25 For example, see David Walsch’s paper, ‘Reflections on the Nature of Modernity’, on breaking away from the ‘tyranny’ of the conventional perspective. See also, for example, Dale Turner’s presentation in Dale Turner (2006) This is Not a Peace Pipe: Towards a Critical Indigenous Philosophy, University of Toronto Press. 26 The term comes from George Yancy (2008) Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Signifi cance of Race, Rowman & Littlefield. 27 Cole 2017 ibid.