Identity politics, both as a concept and as a political approach, has been the focus of heated debates since the term emerged in the seventies. Theoretical debates have addressed the meaning of the expression, its conceptual underpinnings and limitations, and those more empirically focused have considered its applicability in specific contexts. Although identity politics tends to be associated with initiatives led by oppressed and marginalised groups (understood, for example, to be formed by members of racial, gender or ethnic categories), one could argue that identity politics is also at the core of nationalist and fundamentalist movements and political programs. Moreover, critics from a broad political and theoretical spectrum have questioned the efficacy of identity politics for achieving social justice and/or in advancing a redistributive restructuring of political orders that could lead to reducing inequalities.
This panel is intended to provide opportunities to examine identity politics both as a concept and as a political practice in activism, state policies and/or international and transnational norms, regulations and initiatives. We welcome analyses of identity politics including of its meaning/s, its concrete instantiations, the debates that have surrounded it, and its relationship with social justice. Submissions are welcome from anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and other disciplines, to bring forth a broad range of positions in relation to the meaning, viability and efficacy of identity politics and its relationship to social justice. Papers should approach these kinds of issues from analytical and theoretical perspectives and/or by presenting empirically based, ethnographic or historical studies of concrete examples of identity politics at work in one or more parts of the world.
