Dealing with difference: the recursive and the new

Abstract

In recent years theories of difference have become increasingly complex as they have shifted away from unitary, essentialist constructions of ‘race’ and ethnicity. The resulting conceptualizations of ‘race’ and ethnicity - as dynamic and multiple - provide new perspectives on difference, identities, subjectivities and power relations. This article argues that concepts of racialized and ethnicized difference have been taken up or resisted in diverse ways in academia, within feminisms and by some groups. Some of these have reproduced old, unitary notions of racialized hierarchy, while others have helped to disrupt racism. Although some recurrent notions of difference are problematic in continually treating difference as free floating and abstracted from power relations, many new conceptions incorporate older ideas. The article argues that there is no simple good/bad duality between the recurrent and the new.