Identity politics

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The term identity politics ( English identity politics ) is a write-up for political action, which needs a single specific group are people at the center. The aim is to achieve greater recognition of the respective group, to improve its social position and to strengthen its influence. Cultural , ethnic , social or sexual characteristics are used to identify the members of such a group . People who have these characteristics are counted as part of the group and are often viewed as homogeneous . People who lack these qualities are excluded .

Concept history

The Hungarian-British sociologist Frank Furedi sees the forerunners of what is now called identity politics in the late 18th century. During this time, the politicization of identity gained its strength from the conservative reaction against the universalism of the Enlightenment . Important representatives of particularism and a romantic worship of cultural identity were Johann Gottfried Herder in Germany and Joseph de Maistre was in France. According to Herder, culture defines every people by endowing them with their own individual identity and spirit. And de Maistre declared that there is “no human being in himself”. According to Furedi, the promotion of cultural diversity through the counter-enlightenment resulted in epistemological separatism . The assumption that different cultures came to knowledge in different ways caused national identities to solidify and functioned as a cultural precursor to the racial typologies that shaped Western thought into the early 20th century. According to Lea Susemichel and Jens Kastner, the left also articulated identity-political ideas with the class consciousness of the workers' movement of the 19th century. Class politics is always also identity politics.

The contemporary term identity politics has its origin in the USA ( identity politics ). From the new social movements there (and later also in Europe) a special style of politics arose, with argumentation and group formation, which aimed at the formation of identity in a historically new way. In the United States, marginalized groups began to develop a collective consciousness as early as the 1980s that was based on the individual identities of their members. It all started with the political movements of African American people , followed by a section of feminists , gay and lesbian groups, then Native Americans , Americans of Asian and Hispanic origins, old people , homeless , ex- psychiatric patients , the disabled and many others.

The first use of the term is attributed to the Combahee River Collective , a collective of black, lesbian women, who wrote in a programmatic statement in 1977 that the most profound and potentially most radical politics comes directly from one's own identity.

After Donald Trump's election as American President in November 2016, the historian Nell Irvin Painter emphasized that whiteness had now changed from an unmarked category, which until then had taken for granted the social center, to a category that was mobilized in a targeted manner, to secure a politically and socially privileged position. Identity politics is by no means just a matter for Afro-Americans, Latinas, women and LGBTs (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), but also for one of the white, heterosexual, Protestant men who are trying to consolidate their lost place in the center of society. As a result, according to Frank Furedi, identity politics “has now become a caricature of itself”.

Definitions

Daniela Klimke defined in the Dictionary of Sociology identity politics as a concept of cultural studies , the emancipatory movements of discriminated social groups call, such as the civil rights movement ( Civil Rights Movement ) in the United States. Identity politics are also pursued by those affected (for example women, gays, Hindus ) by adopting stigmatizing attributions (such as “ nigger ” or “ Kanake ”) in order to reverse their meaning. Identity politics could lead to assimilation to the identity of the majority, such as "gay marriage" , but it can also take on segregating and fundamentalist traits by exaggerating cultural particularities . Often the validity of social distinguishing features (such as gender or skin color) is reinforced by identity politics , which then confirms the oppressive social hierarchy and the victim role.

Michael Schönhut defines more generally : In his view, identity politics consists of efforts to influence the perception of a cultural category or group among its members or to control the perception of others. Mostly it is about claims or interests that are easier to enforce by a homogeneous group within nation-state distribution conflicts . Identity politics always means deliberately drawing the boundaries between what is one's own (which belongs to it) and the other (which is excluded, see othering ). An important element is the fixing of the other to its otherness or of the own to its original essence , whereby internal differences are leveled out.

With the inclusion of “ right identity politics”, Lorenz Abu Ayyash defines: The term initially stands for the orientation of political action towards the interests of people, which are grouped together based on categories such as class, gender, origin or sexual orientation. Such categories always meant a conscious delimitation that implied the exclusion of the "other". With such a demarcation between the “real people” and the “corrupt elite ”, right-wing identity politics has recently been more successful than left-wing elections in many countries.

reviews

For Francis Fukuyama , the left's crisis in recent decades coincided with its turn to identity politics and multiculturalism . The demand for equality continues to be characteristic of the left, but its program no longer emphasizes the living conditions of the working class , as it once did , but rather the wishes of an ever-growing circle of excluded groups. For some leftists, identity politics has become a cheap substitute for serious deliberations on how the 30-year trend of socio-economic inequality in most liberal democracies can be reversed. Slavoj Žižek had already argued similarly in 1998 : The postmodern identity politics of particular (ethnic, sexual and other) lifestyles fit perfectly with a depoliticized idea of ​​society.

With reference to Walter Benjamin's thesis from 1936 that the fascist “aestheticization of politics” serves the desire of the exploited to be able to express and show themselves aesthetically, e.g. B. at military parades or in mass sports, the Spanish philosopher José Luis Pardo from the Complutense University in Madrid formulates the thesis that after the financial crisis of 2008–2012 the state abandoned the policy of social harmonization and equality in favor of promoting an identity policy that than a purely symbolic politics is much cheaper. Pardo sees the social networks as the most important forum for this, but they can only demagogically conceal the inequality and damage the idea of ​​consensus.

Christoph Jünke , on the other hand, emphasizes that identity politics can be a protection from the ruling majority and a source of self-confidence. This makes it an almost necessary starting point for any politicization and a necessary precondition for political self-organization and assertion: "People become aware of their social, cultural, national or political peculiarities, the injustice that is often associated with it and the possibilities of resistance." On the other hand, identity politics can be exercised by the rulers be exploited for the purposes of their rule. It can be integrated into the existing society if it is possible to play off the various identity-political groups against each other and to partially recognize them as such. The identity-political groups expose themselves to this danger if they define themselves exclusively as such, that is to say, to distinguish themselves from others. Under the prevailing conditions, their struggle for social recognition in the here and now, for social participation, tends to favor themselves at the expense of others, if those social foundations are not also questioned and politically attacked, of which they are their own product.

The American philosopher Richard Rorty argues that representatives of a culturalist left “specialize in what is known as a 'politics of difference' or 'identity' or 'recognition': this cultural left is more concerned with stigma than money, more with deep-seated and hidden psychosexual motives than with prosaic and obvious greed. ”The community they long for is constituted in constant struggles for identity. But it's about breaking solidified identities.

This reservation is currently being intensified by the American political scientist Mark Lilla . He describes identity politics in the USA as “a catastrophically poor basis for democratic politics”, in recent years “American left-wing liberalism has fallen into a kind of moral panic over questions of ethnic, gender and sexual identity , which distorts its message and thus gives it a chance has obstructed to become a unifying force capable of governing. ”Lilla blames the left's identity politics for Donald Trump's election victory .

Emma Dowling, Silke van Dyk and Stefanie Graefe counter such objections with the assessment that the word identity politics has become an omnipresent cipher for the problems of the left and their responsibility for the success of the new right in the current debate . They reject the accusation that identity politics is particularistic and thus undermines the universalism of the struggle for social justice. The original impetus of many social movements , which are now labeled as “identity-political”, was entirely social as a whole. With Patricia Purtschert, they argue that identity politics in these cases does not mean “that a socially segregated group deals with its specific problems, but that grievances are shown from a marginalized perspective that lead to the heart of society”. The authors concede, however, that the emphasis on particular identities sometimes becomes an end in itself and thus loses the overall political impetus.

Volker Weiß notes that the political right has appropriated the identity-political battle concepts. If sexual or ethnic minorities asked for their identities to be protected, so did they. This is the argument of the new "White Nationalism" in the USA, which the local right is closely watching. They want spatial segregation, a “ safe space ” for non-Jewish whites. The message to the outside world is simple: "If you do not question the cultural peculiarities of immigrants, then we no longer want criticism of ours, but also of 'respect'." The right has recognized that this discourse of all-encompassing mindfulness is the end of all social criticism would be the end of the left.

Samuel Salzborn criticizes the "collective-repressive" identity politics, as he sees it at work in the critical whiteness approaches , as almost identical to the ethnic concepts of the extreme right : There are no longer pluralistic discussions about goals and content, rather they reduce them Identity politics “everything and everyone on a supposed identity and hierarchical, anti-emancipatory notions of irreversible 'speaking locations' within societies”. The struggle for identities replaces “ emancipation through repression”.

See also

literature

Books

  • Eva Berendsen, Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel (eds.): Trigger Warning. Identity politics between defense, isolation and alliances. Verbrecher Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-95732-380-4 .
  • Francis Fukuyama : Identity. How the loss of dignity endangers our democracy. Translated from the American by Bernd Rullkötter, Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-455-00528-8 .
  • Mark Lilla : The glory of the past. About the spirit of the reaction . Translated from the American by Elisabeth Liebl, NZZ Libro, Zurich 2018, ISBN 978-3-03810-323-3 .
  • Johannes Richardt (Ed.): The sorted society. On the criticism of identity politics . Novo Arguments Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-944610-45-0 .
  • Lea Susemichel and Jens Kastner: Identity Politics. Concepts and criticisms in the past and present of the left . Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2018, ISBN 978-3-89771-320-8 .
  • Thomas Meyer : Identity Politics. About the abuse of cultural differences . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 978-3-518-12272-3 .
  • Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff : Aesthetics of Difference. Postcolonial Perspectives from the 16th to the 21st Century . 2 Bde. Marburg 2010. 2nd edition 2014. ISBN 978-3-89445-434-0 .

Journal articles

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Furedi: The hidden history of identity politics . In: Johannes Richardt (ed.): The sorted society. On the criticism of identity politics . Novo Argumente Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-944610-45-0 , pp. 13-25, here pp. 14 f.
  2. ^ Lea Susemichel and Jens Kastner: Identity Politics. Concepts and criticisms in the past and present of the left . Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2018, ISBN 978-3-89771-320-8 , p. 39 ff.
  3. ↑ Peter Lohauß: contradictions of identity politics in the democratic society . In: Walter Reese-Schäfer (Ed.): Identity and Interest. The discourse of identity research . Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1999, ISBN 978-3-8100-2481-7 , pp. 65–90, here p. 65.
  4. ^ Lea Susemichel and Jens Kastner: Identity Politics. Concepts and criticisms in the past and present of the left . Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2018, p. 7.
  5. ^ Jürgen Martschukat : Hegemonic identity politics as a "decisive form of politics" in the USA. A story of the present . In: Contemporary history / n . From politics and contemporary history ((APUZ 38-39 / 2018)), Federal Agency for Civic Education .
  6. ^ Frank Furedi: The hidden history of identity politics . In: Johannes Richardt (ed.): The sorted society. On the criticism of identity politics . Novo Argumente Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, pp. 13–25, here p. 25.
  7. ^ Daniela Klimke: Lemma Identity Politics . In: Werner Fuchs-Heinritz and others (eds.): Lexicon for sociology . 5th edition, Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 293.
  8. ^ Michael Schönhuth: Identity Politics. In: The cultural glossary. 5th section.
  9. ↑ Lorenz Abu Ayyash: Editorial . In: Identity Politics . From politics and contemporary history (APUZ 9–11 / 2019), Federal Agency for Civic Education .
  10. ^ Francis Fukuyama: Identity. How the loss of dignity endangers our democracy. Translated from the American by Bernd Rullkötter, Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-455-00528-8 , p. 139.
  11. ^ Francis Fukuyama: Identity. How the loss of dignity endangers our democracy. Translated from the American by Bernd Rullkötter, Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2019, p. 142.
  12. ^ Slavoj Žižek: A plea for intolerance . Translated by Andreas Leopold Hofbauer, Passagen-Verlag, Vienna 1998, ISBN 978-3-85165-327-4 , p. 58.
  13. ^ José Luis Pardo: La estetización de la politica. In: El País , October 12, 2019, p. 11.
  14. ↑ Christoph Jünke: Political Identities. To the critique of the left critique of identity . In: Sylke Bartmann, Karin Gille, Sebastian Haunss (eds.): Collective action. Political mobilization between structure and identity . Hans Böckler Foundation, Düsseldorf 2002, pp. 57–78, here p. 72 f. ( Complete publication online , PDF, accessed on August 21, 2017.).
  15. ↑ Richard Rorty: Proud of our country. The American Left and Patriotism. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 74 f.
  16. ↑ Mark Lilla: Identity politics is not politics. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 26, 2016 ( online , accessed August 21, 2017).
  17. ↑ Omri Boehm: Identity Politics: Who is We? In: The time . August 16, 2017 (Review of Lilla's book The Once and Future Liberal ; online , accessed August 21, 2017).
  18. ↑ Emma Dowling, Silke van Dyk, Stefanie Graefe: Return of the main contradiction? Comments on the current debate about the success of the New Right and the failure of “identity politics” . In: PROKLA . Issue 188, Volume 47, 2017, No. 3, 411-420, here p. 416.
  19. ↑ Patricia Purtschert: There is no beyond identity politics. Learning from the Combahe River Collective . In: contradiction . Issue 6936, 36th edition, 1/2017, pp. 15–24, here p. 20.
  20. ↑ Emma Dowling, Silke van Dyk, Stefanie Graefe: Return of the main contradiction? Comments on the current debate about the success of the New Right and the failure of “identity politics” . In: PROKLA. Issue 188, Volume 47, 2017, No. 3, 411-420, here p. 416.
  21. ↑ Volker Weiß: “The right claims the right to difference - and gets away with it.” In: Johannes Richardt (Ed.): Die sorted Gesellschaft. On the criticism of identity politics . Novo Argumente Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, pp. 80–90, here p. 88 f.
  22. ^ Samuel Salzborn: Global anti-Semitism. A search for traces in the abyss of modernity. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, Basel 2018, p. 28.