| Summary: | In North American contemporary political thought, theorists have increasingly
turned their attention to questions of identity/difference. In particular, liberal
multiculturalism has emerged as the dominant public and normative site to address such
questions, specifically those related to claims of culture. I explore two key aspects of the
theoretical and historical lacuna in liberal multiculturalism: a) how (through processes of
signification) and b) why (as a result of arrangements of power) members of dominant and
subordinated social groups are differentially located within specific socio-historical
contexts. Through multidisciplinary critical approaches, I analyze liberal multiculturalism
both broadly and specifically; this encompasses a critique of two of the leading liberal
multicultural theories in the discourse — namely those of Will Kymlicka and Charles Taylor
— and an assessment of culture as a central organizing concept. Overall, I explore how and
why liberal multiculturalism does not fully grasp the complex terrain of identity/difference
politics. At best, I contend, it only partially captures the complexity of issues at stake, and at
worst it misunderstands, obscures, and erases multiple dimensions of this politics.
This is, however, more than simply a project of criticism; it also a re-conceptualization
of the way in which identity/difference politics should be theorized.
Chiefly, I argue that a conceptual shift from culture to cultural has the potential to open up
theoretical and political considerations closed off by liberal multiculturalism, especially
those related to the constitution of identities, difference, non-difference and power. As such,
in political theory what distinguishes this project from other critical analyses is not a
revision of the culture concept but a shift to an alternate concept. The central contribution of
this shift lies in radically repositioning the analytical focus away from the object of culture
to the processes of meaning-making that constitute identities and relations. To illuminate the
theoretical insights of the shift to cultural I explore a number of case studies. These focus on
the processes that signify Deaf, transsexual, immigrant, and Indigenous women's identities.
The cases demonstrate that the conceptual shift to cultural has the potential tp expand,
interrogate, and complicate the study of identity/difference politics. The final chapter
concludes by considering the political implications of the shift to cultural for liberal-democratic
principles and practices. === Arts, Faculty of === Political Science, Department of === Graduate
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