Justice and the Politics of Identity

Recovering Iris Young’s Structure-Oriented Politics of Becoming

Abstract

I recuperate a structure-oriented account of a politics of becoming from the work of Iris Young, one that rejects identity politics to focus instead on redressing structural injustice. Young offers a theorization of democracy that at once acknowledges our inner multiplicity and our individual capacity to shape our identity, and views equality and inclusion as important political goals that require eliminating structural injustice. For Young, fully embracing the multiplicity and fluidity of groups entails a shift away from conceptualizing groups in terms of identity, toward viewing groups as structural positions. Emancipation thus cannot be achieved through including marginalized identities (e.g., through group-based representation), but through attention to how particular social positions become the site of structural advantage or disadvantage. This structural orientation is an important part of any politics of becoming aiming not only to emancipate individuals to engage in self-transformation, but also to advance democracy and equality for all.