Identity Politics

Chairman: Professor Adam Kuper, FBA, Brunel University  

The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

Tuesday 12 April 2005
6.00-7.30pm
followed by a complimentary drinks reception

Abstracts

ABOUT THIS EVENT

FULLY BOOKED

Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah

I think that identity--in the sense of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion i.e. the big social identities--is an inescapable feature of modern life and that therefore it would be pointless to be against it. I think too that it's inevitable that people should bring the things they care about to bear in thinking about politics and so I think it's equally pointless to be against identity politics in that sense. But I also think that identity can be mobilized in extremely unhelpful ways in political life--as when people vote for politicians because they share their religion or ethnicity rather than agree with their policies--so that there's obviously the possibility of a bad identity politics. Why vote for a fellow Catholic because he agrees with you about abortion or gay marriage (which he isn't going to be able to do much about) if he has economic and foreign policies you deplore. Or, for that matter, for an anti-feminist woman on feminist principle?

Professor Anne Phillips, FBA, London School of Economics and Political Science

Identity politics was, in my view, an important way of breaking the previous hegemony of nation and class. It provided a language for those who defined themselves - and were defined by others - according to identities such as gender, 'race', sexuality, ethnicity, and made it possible for them to articulate new equality claims. It is also potentially a straitjacket.  It can give a false unity to these identity groups; encourage a  destructive politics of authenticity; and encourage people to turn in on their identity  grievances, rather than looking outwards to wider concerns. But with all the criticism of identity politics, we cannot, in my view, simply go back to where we were before. I'm interested in the issues primarily in relation to feminism - where do we go with feminist politics, once we've deconstructed notions of 'women'? and in relation to multiculturalism - what kind of multiculturalism is possible once we abandon totalising notions of 'culture'?