Identity/Difference Politics: How Difference Is Produced, and Why It Matters - Hardcover

Dhamoon, Rita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0774815906 ISBN 13: 9780774815901

Publisher: UBC Press, 2009

Synopsis

Theories of liberal multiculturalism have come to dominate debates about identity and difference politics in recent contemporary western political theory. This book offers a nuanced critique of these debates by questioning liberal multiculturalism’s preoccupation with culture and, just as important, its unintended consequences.

Identity/Difference Politics switches the focus from culture to power. Issues of power are examined through accounts of meaning-making – those processes through which meanings of difference are produced, organized, and regulated. Other forms of identity/difference such as whiteness, ableism, gender, and heteronormativity establish the analytic and normative value of Dhamoon’s alternative theoretical framework, and reveal that an exclusive preoccupation with culture can dissolve into essentialism – which too often provides a rationale for state regulation of groups deemed to be too different. Students of contemporary political theory, multiculturalism, identity politics, Canadian politics and culture, dis/ablity studies, critical race theory, and feminist and gender theory will find it an invaluable resource.

About this title

About the Author

Rita Dhamoon teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Political Science at the University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. She is co-editor of Sexual Justice/Cultural Justice: Critical Perspectives in Political Theory and Practice.

From the Back Cover

Dhamoon forces us to rethink the concept of culture ... in liberal multiculturalism through a subtle, thorough engagement with its dominant thinkers. She clarifies and expands the scope of radical critiques of this field ... outlining the contours of other ways of understanding identity and difference that point towards new, more progressive understandings of democracy, subjectivity, and citizenship. - Richard Day, author of Multiculturalism and the History of Canadian Diversity

From the Inside Flap

Dhamoon forces us to rethink the concept of culture ... in liberal multiculturalism through a subtle, thorough engagement with its dominant thinkers. She clarifies and expands the scope of radical critiques of this field ... outlining the contours of other ways of understanding identity and difference that point towards new, more progressive understandings of democracy, subjectivity, and citizenship. - Richard Day, author of Multiculturalism and the History of Canadian Diversity

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774815906
• ISBN 13: 9780774815901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208