The Distribution of the Sensible
A key concept by Jacques Rancière
What is the Distribution of the Sensible?
The concept of “distribution of the sensible” (or partage du sensibleFrench term used by Rancière in his original works) was developed by Jacques Rancière in his work Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (1995). This concept refers to how society organizes what can be perceived, experienced, and communicated by its members.
“I call the distribution of the sensible the system of self-evident facts of sense perception that simultaneously discloses the existence of something in common and the delimitations that define the respective parts and positions within it.”
— Jacques Rancière
The “distribution of the sensible” is a framework that helps us understand how social and political orders determine:
- What can be seen, heard, said, thought, made, or done
- Who is qualified to see, hear, speak, think, make, or do
- The spaces and times in which these activities can take place
This distribution creates a common world while simultaneously establishing divisions within it. It determines who can have a share in what is common to the community based on what they do and on the time and space in which this activity is performed.
Politics and the Sensible
For Rancière, politics is not simply about power exercises or governance techniques, but fundamentally about reconfiguring the distribution of the sensible.
True politics occurs when those who “have no part” in the common – those excluded or made invisible by the social order – claim their participation, making visible what was invisible and audible what was inaudible.
Aesthetics and the Sensible
Aesthetics is intrinsically linked to politics because both operate by reconfiguring the sensible. Art is not merely a separate domain of experience but a practice that can transform modes of perception.
By challenging established forms of representation and perception, art can introduce new possibilities for experiencing and understanding the world, questioning existing hierarchies.
The Interconnection between Politics and Aesthetics
Rancière argues that politics and aesthetics are deeply interconnected through how sensations and perceptions are distributed in society. This interconnection occurs at three main levels:
- Perception level: Both affect what can be seen, heard, and felt
- Participation level: Both define who can participate and have a voice in certain spaces
- Transformation level: Both have the potential to reorganize common experience
Reconfiguring this distribution is a way to contest hierarchies and power structures, enabling new forms of emancipation and political subjectivation.
The Dimensions of the Distribution of the Sensible
Distribution
Defines who can participate in the common
Delimitation
Establishes boundaries between visible/invisible
Configuration
Organizes relations between doing, being, seeing, saying
Reconfiguration
Transformative potential through politics and aesthetics
Key Elements of the Distribution of the Sensible
The distribution of the sensible establishes what is common to a community and defines the parts within this common. It determines what is shared and how it is divided.
This division creates different “positions” or “places” that individuals can occupy within society, often based on their occupation, identity, or social status.
The distribution of the sensible determines what is visible and what remains invisible within social space. It creates regimes of visibility that include certain realities while excluding others.
Those who are rendered invisible by the dominant order lack the ability to be seen, heard, or counted as legitimate political subjects.
Rancière distinguishes between “speech” and “noise.” The distribution of the sensible determines whose utterances count as meaningful speech and whose are relegated to the status of mere noise.
True politics begins when those who are considered capable only of producing noise demonstrate their ability to speak meaningfully and make legitimate claims.
Practical Examples
The distribution of the sensible can be observed in various contexts of social life:
In Urban Space
Architecture and urban planning determine who can occupy certain spaces and how they are perceived. Consider how homeless people are often made “invisible” through urban design that prevents lingering in public spaces, or how certain neighborhoods are designated as cultural districts while others are viewed as “dangerous” or unworthy of attention.
In Media
Media outlets establish what is newsworthy and visible in public debate, and which voices have authority. The decisions about which stories get covered, whose perspectives are included, and how issues are framed all participate in the distribution of the sensible by making certain realities visible while obscuring others.
In Education
School curricula define what is considered legitimate knowledge and which histories are told or silenced. The division of subjects, the organization of classroom space, and the authority structures in educational institutions all reflect and reinforce particular distributions of the sensible.
In Social Movements
Collective actions can reconfigure the sensible when marginalized groups become visible and their demands audible. Protest movements often challenge the established distribution of the sensible by occupying spaces from which they are typically excluded, speaking in ways that force recognition, and making visible social realities that dominant orders attempt to conceal.