Do norms of justice, human rights and democracy enable disenfranchised communities? Or do they simply reinforce relations of domination between those who are constituted as dispensers of justice, rights and aid, and those who are coded as receivers? Critical race theorists, feminists and queer and postcolonial theorists confront these questions and offer critical perspectives.
This volume presents critical perspectives from feminists, critical race theorists, and queer and postcolonial theorists who challenge the adoption of European norms in the postcolonial context. It questions whether these norms empower disenfranchised communities or reinforce domination and exploitation. The text explores how postcolonial interventions reshape the study of politics and society in both the postcolony and Euro-America, examining the power dynamics between them. By challenging traditional views of international politics, the volume expands the boundaries of social sciences, engaging with alternative critical approaches and addressing overlooked aspects of international relations. The fourteen contributions focus on the silencing of vulnerable groups regarding freedom, equality, and rights, while showcasing postcolonial-queer-feminist struggles for transnational justice and decolonization. These analyses cover various political and social topics, including global governance, neo-colonialism, resistance movements, and body politics. By incorporating insights from other disciplines, this work enriches the fields of political science and international relations. It primarily targets academics, students, political activists, and policymakers interested in globalization, postcolonial theory, gender studies, and social justice.
The book critically examines how the concepts of diversity and intersectionality often serve as symbolic gestures within academia and policy, rather than genuine commitments to change. It argues that these terms are used to counter accusations of racism and sexism while maintaining existing power structures through Eurocentric and Androcentric frameworks. By analyzing their role as legitimizing performance indicators, the work highlights the ongoing resistance to fully realizing their transformative potential in institutional practices and discourses.
The work seeks to bring together critical perspectives on the complex relationship between speech, silence and violence. The task set up here is twofold: On the one hand is the attempt to philosophise silence, to explore the various philosophical engagements with questions that range from the limits of language to the challenge of the ineffable. To this end the notion and working of silence in many of its diverse aspects is analysed within canonical philosophical texts. On the other hand, there is also an endeavour to politicise silence, namely, to explore how some forms of speech have been made impossible within various philosophical discourses and the violent consequences thereof. Thus the work seeks to provide an intersection of the philosophy and politics of silence from a transcultural perspective. Juxtaposing silence with power irritates our everyday understanding of speech as emancipation and silence as censorship. Some questions addressed in the work are: When is speech politically enabling and when does it become repressive? Can silence be subversive? And when is silence a performance of power and violence? If discursive violence is inevitable, why not give preference to silence over discourse? And lastly why one should not avoid speaking?
Das Buch untersucht die Schnittstellen zwischen Postkolonialismus und Kritischer Theorie, indem es deren Konzepte, Methoden und Ansätze miteinander verknüpft. Es analysiert, wie koloniale Strukturen in modernen Gesellschaften fortwirken und welche Rolle kritische Theorien bei der Dekonstruktion dieser Machtverhältnisse spielen können. Zudem werden zentrale Theoretiker und deren Beiträge beleuchtet, um ein tieferes Verständnis für die Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten einer postkolonialen Kritik zu entwickeln. Die Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis wird dabei besonders hervorgehoben.