• Konstruktivistische Identitätspolitik. Warum Demokratie partikulare Positionierung erfordert

    Author(s):
    Karsten Schubert (see profile) , Helge Schwiertz
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    Academic Politics, Frankfurt School Critical Theory, LGBTQ Studies, Political Philosophy & Theory, Queer Theory Group
    Subject(s):
    Democracy--Philosophy, Queer theory, Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984, Feminist theory
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    identity politics, resistance (social), Jacques Rancière, essentialism, Radical Democracy, Constructivism, Democratic theory, Michel Foucault
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/pyk4-xy07
    Abstract:
    Identity politics is subject to similar critiques in contemporary public debate and political theory. A central topos of this critique is that identity politics is essentializing: it fixes subjects to their social position and resorts to a politics of particularity that leads to divisions in national citizenship and democratic discourse (the communitarian and liberal position) and to divisions within social movements (the critical position). Contrary to this one-sided critique, we propose a different interpretation with the concept of “constructivist identity politics.” We show that political identities are not essentialistically given, but emerge from processes of social and political construction; that they are actively produced, learned, and practiced by political (sub)cultures and movements. In these processes of construction, political articulation and agency are produced, enabling subjects to critique relations of domination and discrimination. Following radical democratic theory, we argue that the particular political perspectives of identity politics thus enabled do not endanger democracy or solidarity in social movements, but contribute to their further democratization by actualizing the universal principles of democracy in particular disputes. While the construction processes of identity politics tend to essentialize and produce exclusions, critical reflection on such tendencies is also inherent to identity politics. This understanding also enables a critique of such identity politics that is not oriented towards the democratic values of equality and freedom and blocks critical self-reflection. After an overview of contemporary identity politics critique, we elaborate this constructivist understanding following debates in feminist and postcolonial theory since the 1980s. Building on this, we systematically develop the notion of constructivist identity politics by differentiating three aspects of it: subjectification, articulation, and representation. We..
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1007/s41358-021-00291-2
    Journal:
    Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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