Radical Identity Politics

Radical Identity Politics PDF Author: Torben Bech Dyrberg
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 9781527550568
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
This book outlines significant traits of radical leftist identity politics. In this type of discourse, arguments are organized around global friend/enemy schemes in ways that are at odds with the right/left matrix of democracy. This is shown by combining discourse analysis of how leftist critics argue in public debates centred on their reactions to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and theoretical discussions on leftist identity politics orbiting around Schmitt, Marcuse and Mouffe. It is argued that the friend/enemy approach sacrifices the egalitarian and libertarian core values of the Left, leading it to adopt positions used to brand the reactionary Right. It also holds that leftist identity politics undermines democracy by moralizing enmity and stigmatizing dissent, and by promoting an elitist and relativist agenda. Against this background, the book looks at the nature of the right/left distinction and its political functions in modern democracy. This is further elaborated in relation to the works of Foucault and Rawls's analyses of parrhesia (free speech) and public reason, which provide a more fruitful approach to right/left and democracy than those based on enmity. For Foucault and Rawls, a vibrant pluralist democracy relies on the autonomy of politics, which secures a space in which citizens are free and equal, which is crucial for free speech and assembly. They focus on issues related to the autonomy of politics and the freestanding nature of public reason; right/left as lateral political orientation coupled with fairness as political justification and the links between regime form and political community as decisive for democracy.

Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity PDF Author: Asad Haider
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1786637383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
A powerful challenge to the way we understand the politics of race and the history of anti-racist struggle Whether class or race is the more important factor in modern politics is a question right at the heart of recent history’s most contentious debates. Among groups who should readily find common ground, there is little agreement. To escape this deadlock, Asad Haider turns to the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing on the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralization of its movements. It marks a retreat from the crucial passage of identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to the collective struggle against an oppressive social structure. Weaving together autobiographical reflection, historical analysis, theoretical exegesis, and protest reportage, Mistaken Identity is a passionate call for a new practice of politics beyond colorblind chauvinism and “the ideology of race.”

Elite Capture

Elite Capture PDF Author: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 1642597147
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 111

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Book Description
“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, identity politics is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests. But the trouble, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture—deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests. Táíwò’s crucial intervention both elucidates this complex process and helps us move beyond a binary of “class” vs. “race.” By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

Radical Interventions

Radical Interventions PDF Author: Suzanne de Castell
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791435625
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Minority scholars offer a critical and often radical rethinking of fundamental questions concerning identity, politics, and difference/s as these inform educational theory and practice.

White Identity Politics

White Identity Politics PDF Author: Ashley Jardina
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108590136
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Amidst discontent over America's growing diversity, many white Americans now view the political world through the lens of a racial identity. Whiteness was once thought to be invisible because of whites' dominant position and ability to claim the mainstream, but today a large portion of whites actively identify with their racial group and support policies and candidates that they view as protecting whites' power and status. In White Identity Politics, Ashley Jardina offers a landmark analysis of emerging patterns of white identity and collective political behavior, drawing on sweeping data. Where past research on whites' racial attitudes emphasized out-group hostility, Jardina brings into focus the significance of in-group identity and favoritism. White Identity Politics shows that disaffected whites are not just found among the working class; they make up a broad proportion of the American public - with profound implications for political behavior and the future of racial conflict in America.

Radical Identity Politics

Radical Identity Politics PDF Author: Torben Bech Dyrberg
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527557499
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book outlines significant traits of radical leftist identity politics. In this type of discourse, arguments are organized around global friend/enemy schemes in ways that are at odds with the right/left matrix of democracy. This is shown by combining discourse analysis of how leftist critics argue in public debates centred on their reactions to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and theoretical discussions on leftist identity politics orbiting around Schmitt, Marcuse and Mouffe. It is argued that the friend/enemy approach sacrifices the egalitarian and libertarian core values of the Left, leading it to adopt positions used to brand the reactionary Right. It also holds that leftist identity politics undermines democracy by moralizing enmity and stigmatizing dissent, and by promoting an elitist and relativist agenda. Against this background, the book looks at the nature of the right/left distinction and its political functions in modern democracy. This is further elaborated in relation to the works of Foucault and Rawls’s analyses of parrhesia (free speech) and public reason, which provide a more fruitful approach to right/left and democracy than those based on enmity. For Foucault and Rawls, a vibrant pluralist democracy relies on the autonomy of politics, which secures a space in which citizens are free and equal, which is crucial for free speech and assembly. They focus on issues related to the autonomy of politics and the freestanding nature of public reason; right/left as lateral political orientation coupled with fairness as political justification and the links between regime form and political community as decisive for democracy.

Virtue in an Age of Identity Politics

Virtue in an Age of Identity Politics PDF Author: Jonathan D. Church
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475863160
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Virtue in an Age of Identity Politics: A Stoic Approach to Social Justice proffers Stoicism as a more constructive approach to social justice activism than Critical Social Justice, the current core framework for social justice activism in the 21st-century. Critical Social Justice examines ideologies that underlie the stratification of society in ways that confer ongoing benefits to some groups at the expense of other groups and aims for a radical reshaping of prevailing institutions because they purportedly, and irredeemably, underlie a set of norms, beliefs, and attitudes which will continue to perpetuate social inequalities if we do not undertake efforts to rethink, disrupt, and restructure society. Stoicism, the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, is chosen specifically to help navigate the contentious discourse on “systemic” power and privilege which dominates the Critical Social Justice paradigm. In emphasizing intent over impact, as well as the distinction between the circumstances of our lives and the living of our lives, the Stoic approach highlights the vital importance of reason and virtue in achieving a connection between the individualistic concern with cultivation of a good character and the collective concern with making the world a better place.

Radical Interventions

Radical Interventions PDF Author: Suzanne de Castell
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438400586
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
In this volume, minority scholars in the humanities and the social sciences, working within what are often profoundly hostile contexts, speak about their efforts to disrupt and transform business as usual in the Academy. Theirs is a critical, and often radical rethinking of fundamental questions concerning identity, politics, and difference/s as these inform education theory and practice.

Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity PDF Author: Asad Haider
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839763957
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
A powerful challenge to the way we understand the politics of race and the history of anti-racist struggle Whether class or race is the more important factor in modern politics is a question right at the heart of recent history’s most contentious debates. Among groups who should readily find common ground, there is little agreement. To escape this deadlock, Asad Haider turns to the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing on the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralization of its movements. It marks a retreat from the crucial passage of identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to the collective struggle against an oppressive social structure. Weaving together autobiographical reflection, historical analysis, theoretical exegesis, and protest reportage, Mistaken Identity is a passionate call for a new practice of politics beyond colorblind chauvinism and “the ideology of race.”

Whiteshift

Whiteshift PDF Author: Eric Kaufmann
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1468316982
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 814

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Book Description
“This ambitious and provocative work . . . delves into white anxiety about the demographic decline of white populations in Western nations” (Publishers Weekly). “Whiteshift” is defined as the turbulent journey from a world of racially homogeneous white majorities to one of racially hybrid majorities. In this dada-driven study, political scientist Eric Kaufmann explores how these demographic changes across Western societies are transforming their politics. The early stages of this transformation have led to a populist disruption, tearing a path through the usual politics of left and right. If we want to avoid more radical political divisions, Kaufmann argues, we have to enable white conservatives as well as cosmopolitans to view whiteshift as a positive development. Kaufmann examines the evidence to explore ethnic change in North American and Western Europe. Tracing four ways of dealing with this transformation—fight, repress, flight, and join—he makes a persuasive call to move beyond empty talk about national identity. Deeply thought provoking, enriched with illustrative stories, and drawing on detailed and extraordinary survey, demographic, and electoral data, Whiteshift will redefine the way we discuss race in the twenty-first century.