Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2021 3(1) OUTLINING STATELESS STANDPOINT EPISTEMOLOGY Inspired by the feminist standpoint theory, I evoke similar principles for knowledge about statelessness through the idea of the stateless standpoint epistemology. Put simply, this entails that statelessness research builds on the experience — where the stateless recognise and challenge the historical, social and political arrangements that have persecuted them and construct them as invisible, denied or non-existent — as the standpoint where knowledge of statelessness is achieved. While this knowledge is grounded in the experience of statelessness, there is certainly more than just experience involved in the construction of a distinct epistemic standpoint in the case of statelessness. The elements of this formulation include, but are not limited to, situated experience of statelessness, collective intersubjectivity and epistemic agency. A Situated Experience of Statelessness The stateless standpoint epistemology, practically speaking, is not a mere reflection of the experience of being stateless. Rather it is about realising the dilemma as a site of knowledge and understanding the power and social struggle within and around it. Whilst early standpoint theorists focused on distinctive experiences of women through promoting concepts such as ‘women’s standpoint’ as a method of inquiry, 17 later feminist scholars redirected the focus to ‘feminist standpoint’. 18 Through this, they underscored the difference between experience (as women) and (feminist) epistemic standpoint that is situated in social struggle of women. Thus, the inquiry on situated experiences of women was mediated through the feminist standpoint. In the case of the stateless standpoint epistemology, knowledge also starts from the experience of statelessness, but the potential of this knowledge to assert a powerful and distinct epistemic standpoint lies in explicating the full spectrum of the lived reality of statelessness, as well as in interrogating and transforming social and political struggles in ways different to what naturalised and citizenist knowledges offer. The stateless standpoint epistemology, as such, contests reductionist accounts of the experience of the stateless stressing the dynamic process of building strong and engaged knowledge from this situated experience towards a better understanding of the intersecting socio-political dilemmas of statelessness. B Collective Intersubjectivity Building knowledge from experience towards a standpoint also involves the historically group-based element of the experience. 19 In other words, while subjective experience forms the basis for a standpoint, it is the collective social reality that gives perception for the standpoint. In this regard, some theorists have considered that ‘standpoint theory is not social enough’, 20 suggesting that Harding’s notion of ‘strong objectivity’ can be complemented through 17 18 19 20 Smith, ‘From the Margins’ (n 9) 113. Pohlhaus (n 12) 283; Harding, The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader (n 9). Collins, ‘Comment on Hekman’s “Truth and Method”’ (n 9) 375. Pohlhaus (n 12) 292. 116