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Politics of Difference

Young, Iris M. "Chapter 12: The Ideal of Community and the Politics of Difference."Feminism/Postmodernism. Ed. Linda J. Nicholson. New York City: Routledge, 1990. 300-23. Print.

Summary:

            Iris Marion Young argument surrounding community in relation to her ideal of politics of difference deconstructs our understood relationship between society and the individual.  Young argues that community acts as an ideal that relies on the act of suppressing and excluding difference.  Young uses various writers to supplement her argument, I specifically enjoyed her discussion of Descartes and how modern philosophy is preoccupied with unity of consciousness and immediate presence of self.  I think that we see that within a capitalist patriarchal democratic society—the society holds greater significance than the individual.  Young also states that our desire to define the individual is related to what we are not.  Her ideal city relies on a politics of difference in which the individual is able to retain and prevail in one’s lived experience, identity (unencumbered self?).  However I do not know if this would be able to exist as a collective, cohesive society due to our economic and political structure that does not provide an ACTUAL safety net for the individual.  I do think this might be able to exist in micro-level communities… or affinity groups?