The Perils of Identity: Group Rights and the Politics of Intragroup Difference - Hardcover

Dick, Caroline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0774820624 ISBN 13: 9780774820622

Publisher: UBC Press, 2011

Synopsis

Calls for the provision of group rights are a common part of politics in Canada. Many liberal theorists consider identity claims a necessary condition of equality, but do these claims do more harm than good?

To answer this question, Caroline Dick engages in a critical analysis of liberal identity-driven theories and their application in cases such as Sawridge Band v. Canada, which sets a First Nation’s right to self-determination against indigenous women’s right to equality. She contrasts Charles Taylor’s theory of identity recognition, Will Kymlicka’s cultural theory of minority rights, and Avigail Eisenberg’s theory of identity-related interests with an alternative rights framework that account for both group and in-group differences. Dick concludes that the problem is not the concept of identity itself but the way in which prevailing conceptions of identity and group rights obscure intragroup differences. Instead, she proposes a politics of intragroup difference that has the power to transform rights discourse in Canada.

About this title

About the Author

Caroline Dick is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. 

From the Back Cover

Many liberal theorists consider group identity claims a necessary condition of equality in Canada, but do these claims do more harm than good? To answer this question, Caroline Dick examines the identity-driven theories of Charles Taylor, Will Kymlicka, and Avigail Eisenberg in the context of Sawridge Band v. Canada, a case that sets a First Nation's right to self-determination against indigenous women's right to equality. The concept of identity itself is not the problem, Dick argues, but rather the way in which prevailing conceptions of identity and group rights obscure intragroup differences. Her proposal for a new politics of intragroup difference has the power to transform rights discourse in Canada.

From the Inside Flap

Many liberal theorists consider group identity claims a necessary condition of equality in Canada, but do these claims do more harm than good? To answer this question, Caroline Dick examines the identity-driven theories of Charles Taylor, Will Kymlicka, and Avigail Eisenberg in the context of Sawridge Band v. Canada, a case that sets a First Nation's right to self-determination against indigenous women's right to equality. The concept of identity itself is not the problem, Dick argues, but rather the way in which prevailing conceptions of identity and group rights obscure intragroup differences. Her proposal for a new politics of intragroup difference has the power to transform rights discourse in Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774820624
• ISBN 13: 9780774820622
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260