
Challenging Diversity
Rethinking Equality and the Value of Difference
Davina Cooper(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 3. June 2004
Book
Hardback
246 pages
978-0-521-83183-3 (ISBN)
Description
What challenges are presented by the claim that diversity should be celebrated? How should equality politics respond to controversial constituencies, such as smokers and sports hunters, when they position themselves as disadvantaged? Challenging Diversity brings a new and original approach to key issues facing social, political and cultural theory. Critically engaging with feminist, radical democratic and liberal scholarship, the book addresses four major challenges confronting a radical equality politics. Namely, what does equality mean for preferences and choices that appear harmful; are equality's subjects individuals, groups or something else; what power do dominant norms have to undermine equality-oriented reforms; and can radical practices endure when they collide with the mainstream? Taking examples from religion, gender, sexuality, state policy-making and intentional communities, Challenging Diversity maps new ways of understanding equality, explores the politics of its pursuit, and asks what kinds of diversity does a radical version of equality engender.
Reviews / Votes
'In Challenging Diversity Davina Cooper is engaged in defining how to approach equality in the contemporary developed world, where a politics of diversity has complex manifestation.' Social and Legal Studies '... this is a rich and dense monograph, which weaves a wide array of concerns into a theoretically sophisticated framework for negotiating the challenges of diversity from a radical pluralist perspective.' Feminist Legal StudiesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
555 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-83183-3 (9780521831833)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2006
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€38.49
Available for download
Person
Davina Cooper is Professor of Law and Political Theory, School of Law, University of Kent and Director of the AHRB Research Centre in Law, Gender and Sexuality. Her previous publications include Sexing the City: Lesbian and Gay Politics within the Activist State (1994), Power in Struggle: Feminism, Sexuality and the State (1995), Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging (1998).
Content
1. Introduction: mapping the terrain; 2. Diversity politics: beyond a pluralism without limits; 3. From blokes to smokes: theorising the difference; 4. Towards equality of power; 5. Normative encounters: the politics of same-sex spousal equality; 6. Getting in the way: the social power of nuisance; 7. Oppositional routines: the problem of embedding change; 8. Safeguarding community pathways: 'possibly the happiest school in the world' and other porous places; 9. Diversity through equality.