Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Recognition Respect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Equal Citizenship

This chapter makes the case that political liberalism is a feminist liberalism. It is argued that political liberalism’s ideas of reciprocity and equal citizenship limit reasonable political conceptions of justice to only those that include principles that yield substantive equality for all, including women (and other marginalized groups). To this end, it is claimed that the criterion of reciprocity calls for (1) the eradication of social conditions of domination and subordination relevant to democratic deliberation among free and equal citizens and (2) the provision of the social conditions of recognition respect. As a result, the criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that provide genuine equality for women along various dimensions of social life central to equal citizenship.

scholarly journals Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Recognition Respect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Is a feminist political liberalism possible? Political liberalism’s regard for a wide range of comprehensive doctrines as reasonable makes some feminists skeptical of its ability to address sex inequality. Indeed, some feminists claim that political liberalism maintains its position as a political liberalism at the expense of securing substantive equality for women. We claim that political liberalism’s core commitments actually restrict all reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine substantive equality for all, including women and other marginalized groups. In particular, we argue that political liberalism’s criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that eliminate social conditions of domination and subordination relevant to reasonable democratic deliberation among equal citizens and that the criterion of reciprocity requires the social conditions necessary for recognition respect among persons as equal citizens. As a result, we maintain that the criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that provide genuine equality for women along various dimensions of social life central to equal citizenship.

A Feminist Defense of Political Liberalism

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 249-262
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Power ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Internal Resources ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Subordination ◽  
Equal Citizenship

Some feminists claim that liberal theories lack the resources necessary for fully diagnosing and remedying the social subordination of persons as members of social groups. Part of the problem is that liberals focus too narrowly on the state as the locus of political power. However, equal citizenship is also affected by systems of power that operate in the background culture and that construct social hierarchies in which persons are subordinated as members of social groups. This chapter argues that political liberalism, properly understood, entails a commitment to substantive equality such that it has the internal resources to address the kinds of inequality produced by unjust forms of social power. Although some will claim that if the basic structure is the subject of justice, political liberalism will still fall short of securing gender justice, we explain why this worry is misplaced.

Equal Citizenship and Public Reason

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley ◽  
Lori Watson
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Public Justification ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Gendered Division Of Labor ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
Equal Citizenship

This book is a defense of political liberalism as a feminist liberalism. The first half of the book develops and defends a novel interpretation of political liberalism. It is argued that political liberals should accept a restrictive account of public reason and that political liberals’ account of public justification is superior to the leading alternative, the convergence account of public justification. In the second half of the book, it is argued that political liberalism’s core commitments restrict all reasonable conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine, substantive equality for women and other marginalized groups. Here it is demonstrated how public reason arguments can be used to support law and policy needed to address historical sites of women’s subordination to advance equality; prostitution, the gendered division of labor and marriage, in particular, are considered.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Political Liberalism ◽  
The Core ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Special Concern ◽  
Formal Equality ◽  
Democratic Societies

The introduction acknowledges that although liberalism promises equality for all citizens, liberal democratic societies fall short of this ideal in many ways. Of special concern is the inequality that members of socially subordinated groups endure despite the guarantee of formal equality. Liberal theorists have not yet adequately shown that liberalism can address such group based subordination and can secure substantive equality for all. The introduction explains that the aim of this book is to show that at least one version of liberalism—political liberalism—is a feminist liberalism and that the core commitments of this view restrict all reasonable conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine, substantive equality for women and other marginalized groups. An overview of each chapter is provided.

Concluding Remarks: Social Justice Requires Biocritical Inquiry

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence D. Keel
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
The Social

Our debate here, among social constructionists, has pivoted precisely on the fact that social constructionists are suspicious of claims about race and genetics for reasons that are much larger than science—issues tied to the limits of language and epistemology, the influence of cultural factors on knowledge production, and the economic realities that order social life. Unjust social and political systems necessarily alter the biological lives of marginalized groups and populations. Therefore legacies of discrimination, pernicious policy decisions, and economic inequality must be framed as causal factors in the emergence of health disparities and human biodiversity more generally. Social justice requires what I term a “biocritical inquiry,” which reverses the orthodox practice of situating genes as the base, foundation, and unmoved movers of human health, behavior, and perceived racial difference. Instead, biocritical inquiry synthesizes scientific research and critical forms of humanistic inquiry that denaturalize genetic differences, revealing the social inequalities and historical legacies of violence, conflict, and discrimination that are inseparable from human biological diversity.

Believing in Yellowstone: The Moralization of Nature and the Creation of America’s Eden

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Institutional Effects ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Greater Yellowstone ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Laws And Policies

This chapter shows how materially instrumental or utilitarian aspects of social life can acquire moral and religious meanings. It argues that the use of natural resources in Yellowstone underwent a process of “moralization” that had important institutional effects on the area (e.g., more government attention, scientific research, censuring, public sentiment, emotional disgust). The chapter documents the emergence and interaction of three “moral visions” (utilitarian, spiritual, biocentric) in Yellowstone in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in order to explain this process of moralization. To demonstrate the effects of this process, and how the meaning of Yellowstone changed from its early years, the chapter ends with an analysis of how new moral visions were institutionalized into new laws and policies, both nationally and locally, culminating in the creation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—thus creating the social conditions for eventual intractable contemporary conflict that would soon follow.

Black Early Adolescent Critical Reflection of Inequitable Sociopolitical Conditions: A Qualitative Investigation

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elan C. Hope ◽  
Josefina Bañales
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Early Adolescents ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Qualitative Investigation ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
The Social

In this study, we investigate how Black early adolescents describe the influence of systems and individuals on sociopolitical conditions in their schools, neighborhoods, and communities. Scholars suggest critical reflection of sociopolitical conditions, an analysis that considers the role of institutional and systemic bias on the social conditions of marginalized groups, promotes long-term civic engagement to address those inequitable conditions. Through a qualitative investigation ( N = 36) we find Black early adolescents engage in critically reflective discourse regarding their sociopolitical environment and consider both system and individual attributions for problems in and solutions for their schools and communities. These early adolescents consider their own role in constructing positive change as well as the roles of public servants, parents, and community members. Taken together, this research broadens our understanding of the capacity for racially marginalized early adolescents to engage in analysis of systematic bias and individual responsibility in relation to inequitable social conditions in their schools and communities.

6. Communitarianism

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Kymlicka
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Liberal Politics ◽  
Liberal Neutrality ◽  
Liberal Nationalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Principles Of Justice

This chapter examines communitarianism and its central assumptions. It first considers two strands of communitarian thought: one camp argues that community should be seen as the source of principles of justice, whereas the other camp insists that community should play a greater role in the content of principles of justice. The chapter then explores the communitarian claim that the liberal ‘politics of rights’ should be abandoned for, or at least supplemented by, a ‘politics of the common good’. It also analyses the communitarian conception of the embedded self; two liberal accommodations of communitarianism, the so-called political liberalism and liberal nationalism; the communitarians’ ‘social thesis’, focusing on Charles Taylor’s belief that liberal neutrality cannot sustain the social conditions for the exercise of autonomy; and the connection between nationalism and cosmopolitanism. The chapter concludes with an overview of the politics of communitarianism.

scholarly journals Quasi-Subject Commodities - Labour, Minimalism, and the Social Life of Things

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-83
Author(s):  
Paul Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Fair Trade ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Creation

Commodities play an integral role in the creation and maintenance of personas - to such a degree that they begin to take on characteristics of labor, provenance, and politics, such as distressed clothing or fair trade labels. This essay proposes that we have begun to freight our commodities with their own personas and imagined subjecthoods, and that this shift is foreshadowed in the transformation of artistic practices in the late twentieth century.Two theories on the status of contemporary artworks have come to recent prominence - David Joselit’s “Painting Beside Itself,” which argues that artworks need image not just their status as commodities but rather their circulation and [social] networks, and Isabelle Graw’s claim that artworks are being reconsidered as imaginary “quasi-subjects.” Thus, artworks are being equated with persons, not by their looks but by their actions. This new apprehension of objects finds its own roots in American sculptural debates of minimalism in the late 1960’s, where theorists resorted to ascribing subjectivities to objects to account for the relentless anthropomorphism of even those works which attempted to fully excise the human form.Proponents of “quasi-subjecthood” argue from two tacks: the object either is a subject of its own, or is propped on the “ghostly presence” of its maker. I believe this indicates two predominant characterizations of commodities: full subjects, or signs of an absent maker. Both arguments flirt with a fetishism that, in giving personas and personalities to objects, threatens to erase the social conditions in which each object is made. However, there may be a way in which these imaginaries can be harnessed as prosthetics for our communities. This essay explores possible avenues for artists and critics to create ethical objects for societies of art.

Political Liberalism and Marriage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Public Reason ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Liberal Society ◽  
General Account ◽  
Marriage Contracts ◽  
Sex Equality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legal Marriage

This chapter considers whether political liberals can and should recognize and support legal marriage as a matter of basic justice. A general account of how political liberals should evaluate the issue of legal marriage as matter of basic justice is offered. It is argued that, in certain conditions, the recognition of some form of legal marriage may be the best way to protect the fundamental interests of women as equal citizens in freely chosen associations. Or it may be that, in certain conditions, to secure the social conditions necessary for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to be free and equal citizens, some form of legal marriage can or should be recognized. It is claimed that an underappreciated point about political liberalism is that the particular institutions that are justifiable or required as a matter of basic justice depend in part on the conditions of a particular politically liberal society. political liberalism, public reason, marriage, marriage contracts, sex equality, feminism, polygamy, monogamy

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