In “Transformation vs. Resistance Identity Projects: Epistemological Resources for Social Justice Movements,†Sandra Harding builds on Manual Castells’ theory of a Net society and his three types of collective identity in order to theorize the import of standpoint theory in transformative social movements. She describes four steps for standpoints for such transformative collective identities: 1) They must understand that the “dominant†knowledge of oppressors is socially situated. 2) They must understand their own knowledge as situated and created, even made possible, within the context of oppression. 3) They must “study up,†meaning they must look into how their own oppression is enacted and enforced. 4) They must engage in social action in order to change the structure and concepts that oppress them (258).
Although I was not previously familiar with Castells’ theory of a Net society, I think that Castells’ distinctions between legitimizing, resistant, and transformative collective identities is useful when considering what social movements we should look to as models for social transformation. My primary problem with identity politics as it currently plays out in the United States has been the attention to singular problems, ones that are usually about assimilation instead of structural transformation. One such assimilationist project is the Human Rights Campaign, which is probably best defined as a legitimizing or resistant collective identity.
The HRC has made same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination hiring laws based on sexual orientation, and gays in the military three of its primary goals. These are perhaps laudable as short-term goals, but I am concerned because of the lack of “studying up†and structural and conceptual change. As an example, even within the scope of their own limited activism, the HRC was quick to abandon anti-discrimination hiring laws based on gender presentation and identity when it was clear that ENDA would not pass with this included. This action ignores not only legal precedent that it is okay to fire a gay man or lesbian based on gender presentation, but also the structural and conceptual sexism (of which homophobia is a tool) that creates a rigid gender regime. HRC’s search for the legitimization of gay and lesbian identities often leaves behind most North American queers, as in their battle for same-sex marriage, which would economically and practically, benefit mostly middle class, monogamous gays and lesbians.
When I took a philosophy course on critical social theory, we read Herbert Marcuse, who in the 1960s saw the hippie movement as the locus of transformative change. Obviously, the hippy movement’s radical-ness has since passed, and our professor asked where we might see such transformative movements now. I imagined at the time that perhaps one model might be freegan gutter-punk queer communities in Chicago, though I am not certain (and perhaps should not be).
Based on the criteria offered by Harding, where might we look for such transformative social movements?
Harding, Sandra. “Transformation vs.Resistance Identity Projects: Epistemological Resources for Social Justice Movements.” Identity Politics Reconsidered. Ed. Linda MartÃn Alcoff, Michael Hames-GarcÃa, Satya P. Mohanty, and Paula M. L. Moya. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 246-263.
