An Introduction to the Special Issue on Identity Politics

Abstract

This special issue responds to ongoing debates around what has been termed 'identity politics' . We aim to intervene in what are make-or-break questions for the Left today. Specifically, we wish to provoke further interrogative but comradely conversation that works towards breaking-down the wedge between vulgar economism and vulgar culturalism. Critically, we maintain that just as all identity categories are spatially and temporally contingent -socially constructed, yet naturalised -so too is this current bifurcation between 'class politics' and 'identity politics' . Ultimately, we Downloaded from Brill.com07/06/2020 06:28:12PM via free access 4 Kumar et al. Historical Materialism 26.2 (2018) 3-20call for an intellectual and organisational embracing of the complexity of identity as it figures in contemporary conditions; being a core organising-principle of capitalism as it functions today, a paradigm that Leftist struggle can be organised through and around -and yet all with a recognition of the necessity of historicising, and ultimately abolishing, these categories along with capitalism itself. Keywordsidentity politics -economism -class -internationalism -culturalism -identitarianrace -gender 2017 was, in many ways, the year debates around identity politics came to a head. No longer exclusively the stuff of intra-Leftist mudslinging, the contrived opposition between 'class politics' and 'identity politics' resurfaced in mainstream political and media parlance. After having spectacularly misjudged two of the West's most significant political shocks of the decade -Brexit and the election of Donald Trump -talking heads were quick to blame the rise of the far-Right on the crushing hegemony of 'political correctness' . This discursive framework purportedly side-lined the so-called 'white working class' in its desperate, emasculating attempts to appeal to women, people of colour and other marginalised communities. Despite the categorically bourgeois interests behind the UK 'Leave' and 'Remain' campaigns, and the fact that, for example, lower-income Americans were less likely to vote for Trump than the upper classes,1 both moments were prematurely framed as cries of revenge from white, working-class men: a category defined by class as well as race, and yet dispossessed not by capitalism but by a multiracial metropolitan elite preoccupied with showing superficial tolerance towards minority identities. White nationalist and former Chief Strategist in Trump's White House, Steve Bannon, neatly summarised this framework -and its efficacy for his project of the so-called 'alt-right':The Democrats -the longer they talk about identity politics, I got 'em.… I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.2 1 Gould and Harrington 2016. 2 Steve Bannon, quoted in Egan 2017.

What Kind of Identity is Partisan Identity? “Social” versus “Political” Partisanship in Divided Democracies

“…Given the quite reasonable assumption that the lived experience of a social identity is the best (or only) source of relevant knowledge (e.g., a shared experience of oppression), demands for recognition require that the sole arbiters of the adequacy and authenticity of recognition be members of the concerned group themselves (Kruks 2001;Young 1990). Thus, even when demands for recognition of our particularist, authentic selves are justified-as they surely often are-they often bring an element of uncompromisingness into political discourse and sometimes prevent broader solidarities (e.g., class politics; Fraser 1997; Kumar et al 2018).…”

The Dilemma of the Identity Politics and a New Thinking

“…In the context of identity politics, although capitalism has serious economic and class inequality, as long as women, ethnic minorities and sexual minorities have their voice to be heard, "capitalist society will become impeccable." [4]In the 21st century, capitalism has changes a lot, the economy has been "financialized,the financial risks are transferred to the whole society. In capitalist countries, the industry hollowing, the rising unemployment, the poverty-returning of the middle class and other problems have brought difficulties to the lives of the middle class and the lower class [5].…”

Canon Fire

“…This approach is more consistent with the US curriculum studies that emerged in the early twentieth century and have shaped critical education scholarship since (Leonardo, this volume). The 'decolonizing the curriculum' movement raises demanding practical questions about how contemporary scholars might engage with the canon of 'classic' anthropological work (Sanchez 2017), the limits of identity politics (Kumar et al 2018) and the basis on which a writer is assigned a racial and national identity by their audience, and how that might inform readings of their work.…”