A Doctoral Thesis To Pass The Time With

Abstract

This thesis explores several related themes linked to the tendency towards relativism and anti-humanism in radical social theory. Within the broader context of the influence of poststructuralism and postmodernism I seek to identify the main sources of social constructionist (conventionalist) theories of ‘the social’, and to clarify their relationship to the politics of ‘difference’. Paying particular attention to the impact of these trends on theories of gender and race I suggest the need to retrieve a humanist and historical materialist approach to understanding the relationship between the universal and the particular, difference and the Subject.
Chapter 1 maps out some of the important contributions to, and influences upon, postmodernist and relativist thought. Chapters 2 and 3 look at the different ways in which ‘identity’ has become one of the principal concerns for radical thought. Chapter 2 explores the most significant developments within feminist theory over recent decades, and relates these changes to the inherently particularist nature of feminist epistemology. Chapter 3 considers the ways in which notions of ‘difference’ have been developed in relation to theories of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’, and examines the implications of these ideas for anti-racist thought. Chapter 4 looks at Hall’s and Butler’s attempts to resolve the particularism-universalism problematic. It also tackles the specific limitations of identity theory and conventionalist theories of ‘the social’. Lastly, it addresses the current status of the Subject in radical thought. The conclusion considers, briefly, the retreat from engagement that the politics of difference represents, and highlights aspects of recent Marxist writing on postmodernism and anti-humanism. It also points towards some important critical developments.