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Justice and the Politics of Difference
by Iris Marion Young
Princeton Univ Pr, 1990, 294 pages
ISBN: 0691023158
Book Description
This book challenges the prevailing philosophical reduction of social
justice to distributive justice. It critically analyzes basic concepts
underlying most theories of justice, including impartiality, formal
equality, and the unitary moral subjectivity. Starting from claims
of excluded groups about decision making, cultural expression, and
division of labor, Iris Young defines concepts of domination and
oppression to cover issues eluding the distributive model. Democratic
theorists, according to Young do not adequately address the problem
of an inclusive participatory framework. By assuming a homogeneous
public, they fail to consider institutional arrangements for including
people not culturally identified with white European male norms
of reason and respectability. Young urges that normative theory
and public policy should undermine group-based oppression by affirming
rather than suppressing social group difference. Basing her vision
of the good society on the differentiated, culturally plural network
of contemporary urban life, she argues for a principle of group
representation in democratic publics and for group-differentiated
policies. "This is an innovative work, an important contribution
to feminist theory and political thought, and one of the most impressive
statements of the relationship between postmodernist critiques of
universalism and concrete thinking.... Iris Young makes the most
convincing case I know of for the emancipatory implications of postmodernism."
Seyla Benhabib, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Buying information
About the author
Iris Marion Young is Professor of Political Science at the University
of Chicago. She is affiliated with the Gender Studies Center and
the Human Rights program. Her research interests are in contemporary
political theory, feminist social theory, and normative analysis
of public policy. Her books include Justice and the Politics of
Difference (Princeton University Press, 1990), Throwing Like a Girl
and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory (Indiana
University Press, 1990), Intersecting Voices: Dilemmas of Gender,
Political Philosophy, and Policy (Princeton University Press, 1997),
and Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2000). Her
writings have been translated into several languages, including
German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish. She has lectured widely in
North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
Author's links
Homepage:
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/young
Informations:
http://www.pitt.edu/~polisci/young.htm
Courses and seminars:
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/young/teaching.html
Curriculum Vitae:
http://political-science.uchicago.edu/directories/faculty/young_cv.html
Notes on "City life and difference":
http://www.louisville.edu/~adbake01/bake-young.html
e-mail:
iyoung@uchicago.edu
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