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Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Identity/Difference Politics

How Difference Is Produced, and Why It Matters

Theories of liberal multiculturalism have come to dominate debates about identity and difference politics in contemporary western political theory. Identity/Difference Politics offers a nuanced critique of these debates by switching 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.


208 pages | © 2009


Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Problem with “Culture”

2 The Politics of Meaning-Making

3 Re-Thinking Accounts of the “Immigrant”

4 Regulating Difference: Accounts of Deaf and Trans-sexual Difference

5 Accounts of Racialized Gendering: Domination and Relational Othering

6 Possibilities for Democracy: Toward Disruption

Notes

References

Index

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