Like many other concepts of social and political philosophy, ‘emancipation’ is perplexingly iridescent. It is, at once, laden with the hope of overcoming ‘immaturity’ and domination while it is also reminiscent of the unredeemed promises of the Enlightenment and modernity, in particular, the ambivalent utopias of reason, progress and liberty. However, insofar as the concept alludes to selftransformation and self-empowerment as constitutive elements of social change, it has, since the late eighteenth century, played a central role in the political language and theory of feminism and other cultural, social and political movements. In the present – shaped by multiple crises – the once ‘outmoded’ concept of emancipation surfaces again in critical political theory and thereby acquires new meanings. In light of recent debates, the aim of the workshop is to discuss the history and the potential of the concept of emancipation. With emphasis on the politics of gender, race and class, questions for discussion may include: how ‘emancipation’ could adequately be specified as an ‘intersectional’ concept; how far feminist critiques of reason, universalism and ‘progress’ may inform a robust, contemporary concept of emancipation, and what kind of broader conceptual challenges for political philosophy and social theory arise from such a reformulation of ‘emancipation’.

Programm

Freitag, 06.07.2012, 10:00 - 17:00