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Recognition and the Politics of Human(e) Desire

Yar, Majid (2001) Recognition and the Politics of Human(e) Desire. Theory, Culture and Society, 18 (2/3). pp. 57-76. ISSN 0263-2764. (doi:10.1177/02632760122051788) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:274)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02632760122051788

Abstract

In the course of the last 30 years, feminist theories of gender have shifted from quasi-Marxist, labor-centered conceptions to putatively ‘post-Marxist’ cultureand identity-based conceptions. Reflecting a broader political move from redistribution to recognition, this shift has been double edged. On the one hand, it has broadened feminist politics to encompass legitimate issues of representation, identity and difference. Yet, in the context of an ascendant neoliberalism, feminist struggles for recognition may be serving less to enrich struggles for redistribution than to displace the latter. Thus, instead of arriving at a broader, richer paradigm that could encompass both redistribution and recognition, feminists appear to have traded one truncated paradigm for another – a truncated economism for a truncated culturalism. This article aims to resist that trend. I propose an anaysis of gender that is broad enough to house the full range of feminist concerns, those central to the old socialistfeminism as well as those rooted in the cultural turn. I also propose a correspondingly broad conception of justice, capable of encompassing both distribution and recognition, and a non-identitarian account of recognition, capable of synergizing with redistribution. I conclude by examining some practical problems that arise when we try to envision institutional reforms that could redress gender maldistribution and gender misrecognition simultaneously.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/02632760122051788
Uncontrolled keywords: identity multiculturalism parity participation redistribution status
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Samantha Osborne
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 18:08 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/274 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Yar, Majid.

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