The argument is made that these terms and categories are rhetorical in that they provide the way of understanding and organising collective life. She explores the origins of liberalism and notes that while liberal theory has been subject to debate and change the main categories of liberalism (state, economy, civil society and family), along with the master terms of “public” vs “private”, have remained relatively consistent. Duggan makes a forceful argument here that any challenge to neoliberalism, which she perceives to be experiencing a period of instability, needs to acknowledge the centrality of issues of race, gender and sexuality as well as economic class and nationality.
The focus of the book is on the changes that have occurred in the last decade of the 20th century, but Duggan begins in the introduction by tracing the cultural and political changes since the 1970s.Ĭhapter 1 contextualises The Twilight of Equality by exploring the development of liberalism in the USA. 88).Īlthough the text is written primarily within the context of US politics, there are a range of parallels that can be drawn with Western European politics over the past 30 years, where similar shifts from social democratic to neoliberal government have been apparent. Indeed, one of the book aims is to challenge a “pedagogic mode” that perpetuates divisions between “the academic” and “the activist”, seeking to develop alternative ways of “thinking, speaking, writing and acting that are engaged and curious about “other people” struggles for social justice” (p. The work will be accessible to a broad audience of academics and activists as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in social theory, politics, social policy, sociology and equality issues. The author states that the Twilight of Equality is both an analysis of the politics of the 1990s but also a polemic that argues that “as long as the progressive left represents itself as divided into economic vs cultural, universal vs identity based, distribution vs recognition orientated, local or national vs global branches, it will defeat itself” (p. The Twilight of Equality is a clearly written and concise text with the substantive content consisting of four core chapters – “Downsizing Democracy”, “The Incredible Shrinking Public”, “Equality Inc”, and “Love and Money” – which span just 90 pages. Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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