The notion of “self-determination” is enshrined in the founding documents of international law and most state constitutions as a means of legitimating the current state and supranational order. However, its precise definition and parameters are the subject of debate—both when understood from within the logic of the state system as well as from outside it. This article aims to unearth a “rhizomatic” reading of self-determination, informed by critical political theory, wherein its particular relationship to the state system and the total notion of sovereignty is relaxed. The article then applies this thinking to four case studies in order to demonstrate how this conception can help to understand the possibilities created by recent political movements as manifestations of boundless constitutive power and collective imagination that unleash new vectors of political possibility.
