Identity Politics in the Public Realm Identity Politics

Identity Politics in the Public Realm

Identity Politics Groups are politicized on the basis of gender, ethnicity, language, religion, race, indigeneity to make claims for resources or opportunities based on some aspect of their identity.

Normative Political theory …explores how claims to the recognition and accommodation of identity relate to broader principles of justice, freedom, human rights, and democratic citizenship (see Appiah 2005, Gutmann 2003, Kymlicka 1995, Taylor 1994, Tully 1995; for a notable exception and dissent, see Barry 2001).

Empirical Social Science …explores the social and political processes which actually underpin the politicization of identity groups (see, e. g. Deveaux 2008, Jung 2008, Tilley 2002, etc. ).

Risks of Identity Politics and Political Mobilization 1. Entrenching elite hierarchies Deveaux 2008, Shachar 2001, Song 2007 State accommodation can embolden group elites to exert pressure on their members to respect traditional lines of authority or State refusal to accommodate can trigger cultural defensiveness or reactivism which reinforces power of conservative traditions (and elites) to shield the group from outside pressures

2. Cooptation/domestication Alfred 1999, Coultard 2007, see Brysk 2000 Risk that identity politics offers minor adjustments while diverting resources of vulnerable groups away from political struggles that are more directly relevant to addressing underlying causes of injustice

3. Essentialism and stereotyping Phillips 2007 Identity groups will press their claims by playing into mainstream stereotypes and thereby encouraging narrow and stereotypical understandings of what constitutes their identities

4. Social fragmentation/group polarization Miller 1995, Putnam 2007 Identity politics encourages people to mobilize on the basis of what distinguishes them rather than unites them and it undermines social trust

How do public institutions respond to the risks of identity politics?

Factors that make a difference to institutional responses • • History matters International influences Democratic engagement/effective participation Institutional reflexivity/humility

References Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2005) The Ethics of Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Miller, David (1995) On Nationality Oxford: Oxford University Press. Barry, Brian (2001) Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Moore, Margaret (2006) ‘Identity claims and identity politics: A limited Multiculturalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. defence’, in Ignor Primoratz and Aleksandor Pavković (eds. ), Identity, Brysk, Alison (2000) From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and Delf-determination, and Secession. London: Ashgate, 27 -44 International Relations in Latin America. Palo Alto: Stanford University Phillips Anne (2007) Multiculturalism without Culture. Princeton: Princeton Press. University Press. Copp, David (2002) ‘Social Unity and the Identity of Persons’. The Journal of Povinelli, Elizabeth (1998) ‘The state of shame: Australian multiculturalism Political Philosophy, 10/4: 365 -91. and the crisis of Indigenous citizenship’. Critical Inquiry, 24: 575 -610. Deveaux, Monique (2006) Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States. Putnam, Robert D. 2007 “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Oxford: Oxford University Press. Twenty-first Century The 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture. ” Eisenberg, Avigail (2009) Reasons of Identity: A Normative Guide to the Scandanavian Political Studies 30(2): 137 -74. Political and Legal Assessment of Identity Claims Oxford: Oxford Shachar, Ayelet (2001) Multicultural Jurisdictions. Cambridge: UK: University Press. Cambridge University Press. Fournier , Pascale (2002) "The Ghettoization of Difference in Canada: "Rape Song, Sarah (2007) Justice, Gender and the Politics of Multiculturalism. by Culture" or the Danger of a Cultural Defense in Criminal Law Trials " Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Manitoba Law Journal 29: 81 -113 Taylor, Charles (1994) Multiculturalism and the ‘Politics of Recognition’. Friedlander, Judith (2006) Being Indian in Hueyapan. Revised ed. London: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Macmillan/Palgrave. Tilley, Viriginia Q. (2002. ‘New help or new hegemony? The transnational Gutmann, Amy (2003) Identity in Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton indigenous peoples’ movement and ‘being Indian’ in El Salvador’. University Press. Journal of Latin American Studies, 34: 525 -54. James, Matt (2006) Misrecognized Materialists: Social Movements in Tully, James. (1995). Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in the Age of Canadian Constitutional Politics UBC Press. Diversity. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. Jung, Courtney (2008) The Moral Force of Indigenous Politics: Critical Volpp, Leti (2000) ‘Blaming culture for bad behaviour’, Yale Journal of Law Liberalism and the Zapatistas. New York: Cambridge University Press. and the Humanities, 12: 89 -116. Koopmans, Ruud (2006) “Trade-Offs Between Equality and Difference: The Waldron, Jeremy. (2000). ‘Cultural identity and civic responsibility’. In Will Crisis of Dutch Multiculturalism in Cross-National Perspective”, Danish Kymlicka and Wayne Norman (eds. ), Citizenship in Diverse Societies. Institute for International Affairs, Brief , December 2006). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 155 -74. Kymlicka, Will (1995) Multicultural Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Warren, Mark ed. 1999 Democracy and Trust, Cambridge University Press. Weinstock, Daniel (2006) ‘Is “identity” a danger to democracy? ’, in Igor Merry, Sally Engle (2001) “Change Rights, Changing Culture. ” Culture and Primoratz and Aleksandar Pavkovic (eds. ), Identity, Self-determination Rights: Anthropological Perspectives, Jane K. Cowan, Marie-Bénédicte and Secession. London: Ashgate, 15 -26. Dembour and Richard A. Wilson eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1. Introduction: Bringing Institutions Back In Avigail Eisenberg and Will Kymlicka 2. Democratic Dilemmas of Census Categorization in the Post-Civil Rights Era Melissa Nobles 3. Knowledge and the Politics of Ethnic Identity and Belonging in Colonial and Post. Colonial States Bruce Berman 4. Defining Indigeneity: The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 in the Philippines, Representation and Indigenous Identity Villia Jefremovas and Padmapani L. Perez 5. Defining Indigeneity in Latin America: How to Classify Afro-descendants? Juliet Hooker 6. Domestic and International Norms for Assessing Indigenous Identity Avigail Eisenberg 7. The Challenge of Naming the Other in Latin America Victor Armony 8. From Immigrants to Muslims: How the French Politics of Integration Transformed Secularism Eléonore Lépinard 9. Beliefs” and “religion”: categorizing cultural distinctions among East Asians André Laliberté 10. Assessing Religious Identity in Law: Sincerity, Accommodation and Harm Lori G. Beaman 11. Reasonable Accommodations and the Subjective Conception of Freedom of Conscience and Religion Jocelyn Maclure • Forthcoming UBC Press Fall 2011