0521882818 - After Identity. Rethinking Race, Sex, and Gender (Contemporary Political Theory).pdf

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After Identity
Social and political theorists have traced in detail how e to
possess gender, sex, and racial identities. This book examines the nature of these
identities. ia Warnke aruges that identities, in general, are interpretations
and, as such, have more mon with textual understanding than monly
acknowledge. A racial, sexed, or gendered understanding of who we and others are
is neither exhaustive of the ‘‘meanings’’ we can be said to have, nor uniquely
correct. We are neither always, nor only, black or white, men or women, or males or
females. Rather, all identities have a restricted scope and can lead to injustices
and contradictions when they are employed beyond that scope. In concluding her
argument, Warnke considers the legal and policy implications that follow for
affirmative action, childbearing leave, the position of gays in the military, and
marriage between same-sex partners.
IA WARNKE is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for Arts and
Humanities at the University of California, Riverside.
CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY
SERIES EDITOR
Ian Shapiro
EDITORIAL BOARD
Russell Hardin Stephen Holmes Jeffrey Isaac
John Keane Elizabeth Kiss Susan Okin
Phillipe Van Parijs Philip Pettit
As the twenty-first century begins, major new political challenges have arisen at the
same time as some of the most enduring dilemmas of political association remain
unresolved. The collapse munism and the end of the Cold War reflect a
victory for democratic and liberal values, yet in many of the Western countries
that nurtured those values there are severe problems of urban decay, class and racial
conflict, and failing political legitimacy. Enduring global injustice and inequality
pounded by environmental problems, disease, the oppression of women,
racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and the relentless growth of the world’s
population. In such circumstances, the need for creative thinking about the
fun