Justice and the Politics of Difference. By Iris Marion Young. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. 286p. $45.00 cloth, $10.95, paper.

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 520-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L. Dumm
Digithum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Lima e Silva ◽  
Felipe Gonçalves Silva

This paper analyzes the role of phenomenology in Iris Marion Young´s model of critical theory through a discussion of the different strategies she mobilizes in articulating the notions of identity and social collectivities in Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990) and Inclusion and Democracy (2000). By reconstructing the debate Young had with Nancy Fraser during the 1990s, we seek to demonstrate that, although Fraser mischaracterizes Justice and Politics of Difference as representative of the “cultural turn” in social theory, her criticisms can illuminate some of the tensions and shortcomings of the text. Moreover, we argue that the emphasis in a structural-analytical strategy of argumentation, characteristic of Young´s later work, can be traced back to the contentions formulated by Fraser. Nonetheless, it is sustained in a final step that Young never completely abdicated the phenomenological approach as a tool for social criticism. Although the argument of Inclusion and Democracy is developed primarily in a structural way, Young repeatedly mobilizes the experiences of social suffering and the demands for justice voiced by social movements as the basis of her large scale democratic proposals.


Human Affairs ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Uhde

On Sources of Structural Injustice: A Feminist Reading of the Theory of Iris M. YoungThe author focuses on a critical theory of justice and democracy by Iris Marion Young. Young's normative approach to justice and the institutional framework of inclusive democracy develops out of her critique of injustice. In the first section the author explains Young's approach to structural injustice, which she conceptualizes in terms of domination and oppression. In the second part the author elucidates Young's concept of the politics of difference and inclusive democracy. In this context Young differentiates between social and cultural groups; this enables her to take into consideration the political significance of group differences. The author goes on to present Young's critical theory of gender based on the notion of women as a social structural group. Young argues that gender refers to social structures that shape relations of subordination and oppression rather than to identity. In the final part the author discusses the application of Young's concept of structural injustice at a transnational level. Finally, she concludes with an outline for a feminist reading of the concept of structural injustice in a transnational context.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357
Author(s):  
Mitja Sardocč

In this interview, Stephen J. Macedo, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values, and Director of the University Center for Human Values, at Princeton University, critically discusses some of the main lines of criticism addressed to contemporary liberal political theory and develops further a liberal conception of civic education presented in his book Diversity and Distrust. The main issues addressed in the interview present a detailed and well-documented critique of the hands-off stance toward diversity of the ‘politics of difference’ and articulate a pervasive defense of the project of ‘civic liberalism’ that supports a liberal agenda for civic education, necessary to sustain our liberal democratic regimes.


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