Postmodern theory’s identity fluidity opposes any group-based rights politics
Evidence
The principal problem for multiculturalism here is that any notion of group-based rights stands in direct contrast to much postmodernist theorizing on identities which - with its related concepts of hybridity, syncretism, creolization, and new ethnicities - highlights the “undecidability” and fluidity of much identity formation. Indeed, it is now almost de rigueur in this postmodernist age to dismiss any articulation of group-based identity as essentialist - a totalizing discourse that excludes and silences as much as it includes and empowers (see, for example, Anthias and Yuval-Davis, 1992; Bhabha, 1994; Gilroy, 1993, 2000; Hall, 1992; Yuval-Davis, 1997a). Viewed in this way, multiculturalism’s advocacy of group-based identities appears irredeemably passe. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 907
Categorization
- XREF: Sets the ‘new ethnicities’/hybridity vocabulary (Hall, Gilroy) the vault uses elsewhere against group-rights multiculturalism — a distinction worth preserving. — connects to: Postmodernist identity theory treats all group-based identity claims as essentialist; Micropolitics and identity-group organizing are themselves postmodern phenomena; Group-based rights programs cannot easily avoid reifying the identities they codify (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Postmodernist identity theory treats all group-based identity claims as essentialist
#corroborates(0.88) - Group-based rights programs cannot easily avoid reifying the identities they codify
#corroborates(0.80) - Genocide law depends on reified bounded groups that postmodern theory unsettles
#exemplifies(0.77) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 265 - Micropolitics and identity-group organizing are themselves postmodern phenomena
#qualifies(0.75)