test
Search publications, data, projects and authors

Article

French

ID: <

10670/1.sahcua

>

Where these data come from
Multiculturalism, anti-fundamentaalism and radical democracy: Genesis of the current impasse in feminist theory

Abstract

`titrebMulticulturalism, antiessentialism, and radical democracy`/titrebThis essay reconstructs the history of feminist debates about “difference” from the late 1960s to the present in order to diagnose current impasses and to point the way beyond them. I chart the shift from a first phase of debate focused on “equality versus difference” to a second phase focused on “differences among women” to a third phase, now underway, focused on “multiple intersecting differences” such as gender, “race”, class, and sexuality. I argue that the current difference debate is at an impasse. Neither of the two most advanced positions, antiessentialism and multiculturalism, can provide a basis for distinguishing democratic from anti-democratic identity claims, just from unjust differences. Neither, as a result, can sustain a viable feminist politics. Both fail to connect a cultural politics of identity and difference to a social politics of justice and equality. I conclude by proposing a new phase of debate about difference aimed at connecting the politics of cultural difference with the politics of social equality.

Your Feedback

Please give us your feedback and help us make GoTriple better.
Fill in our satisfaction questionnaire and tell us what you like about GoTriple!