Challenging Diversity: Rethinking Equality and the Value of Difference (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies) - Softcover

Cooper, Davina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521539544 ISBN 13: 9780521539548

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

What challenges are presented by the claim that diversity should be celebrated? How should equality politics respond to controversial constituencies, such as smokers and sports hunters, when they position themselves as disadvantaged? Challenging Diversity brings a new and original approach to key issues facing social, political and cultural theory. Critically engaging with feminist, radical democratic and liberal scholarship, the book addresses four major challenges confronting a radical equality politics. Namely, what does equality mean for preferences and choices that appear harmful; are equality's subjects individuals, groups or something else; what power do dominant norms have to undermine equality-oriented reforms; and can radical practices endure when they collide with the mainstream? Taking examples from religion, gender, sexuality, state policy-making and intentional communities, Challenging Diversity maps new ways of understanding equality, explores the politics of its pursuit, and asks what kinds of diversity does a radical version of equality engender.

About this title

About the Author

Davina Cooper is Professor of Law and Political Theory, School of Law, University of Kent and Director of the AHRB Research Centre in Law, Gender and Sexuality. Her previous publications include Sexing the City: Lesbian and Gay Politics within the Activist State (1994), Power in Struggle: Feminism, Sexuality and the State (1995), Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging (1998).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521539544
• ISBN 13: 9780521539548
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248