Difference Troubles Queering Social Theory and Sexual Politics [Paperback]

In this 1997 book, Steven Seidman offers a wide-ranging and sophisticated discussion of social theory and sexual politics.Steven Seidman examines the implications for social theory and sexual politics of taking difference seriously. He explores the troubles difference can make for the social sciences and for the very people -- feminists, queer theorists, postmodernists -- who champion difference. This is a wide-ranging and sophisticated discussion of contemporary social theory and sexual politics, focusing on difference, knowledge and power. It also argues persuasively for a pragmatic approach to questions of difference in theory and politics.Steven Seidman examines the implications for social theory and sexual politics of taking difference seriously. He explores the troubles difference can make for the social sciences and for the very people -- feminists, queer theorists, postmodernists -- who champion difference. This is a wide-ranging and sophisticated discussion of contemporary social theory and sexual politics, focusing on difference, knowledge and power. It also argues persuasively for a pragmatic approach to questions of difference in theory and politics.Steven Seidman examines the implications for social theory and sexual politics of taking difference seriously. He explores the troubles difference can make for the social sciences and for the very people--feminists, queer theorists, postmodernists--who champion difference. This is a wide-ranging and sophisticated discussion of contemporary social theory and sexual politics, focusing on difference, knowledge and power. It also argues persuasively for a pragmatic approach to questions of difference in theory and politics.Introduction: the contemporary reconfiguring of social theory and cultural politics; Part I. Resisting Difference: The Malaise of the Human Sciences: 1. The political unconscious of the human sciences; 2. The end of sociological theory; 3. Relativizing sociology: the challenge of cultul“m