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Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory by NancyFraserReview by: Patricia S. MannHypatia, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 225-228Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of Hypatia, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810111 .

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questionshe set out to addressby arguing hat the realandapparentdesiresofwomencan be distinguished hroughreference o a "true elf."The "true elf"she offers,however,is only a slightlyreworkedversion of the Enlightenmentsubject.What feministtheoryneeds is a conceptionof self that displaces heEnlightenmentdichotomies,a self that can accountforresistanceand creativ-ity without recourse o a transcendentconstitutingsubject.

Unruly Practices:Power, Discourse, and Gender in ContemporarySocialTheory. ByNANCY FRASER.Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress,1989.Patricia . Mann

Nancy Frasers a socialistfeminist and a philosopher.While the essays nUnrulyPracticeswere writtenseparatelyover the pastdecade,Fraser uggeststhat we read them as "the recordof one socialist-feminist's nd formerNewLeftactivist's truggle o beapoliticallycommitted,critical ntellectualwithinthe academy" 2). Fraser'sdysseycorrespondswith that of othermembersofa studentgenerationwhose intellectualandpersonaldevelopmentwas nerad-icablyaffectedby theirparticipationn the civil rights,antiwar,andfeministactivismof the sixties andseventies,and who then went on in the eightiestopursuecareers within mainstreamsocial institutions such as the academy.UnrulyPractices rovidesa fascinatingview of the complexintellectualnego-tiationsa politicallysavvywomanchoosesto makein order o be heard n anacademiccontext.Fraserwas "trained" the technical terminology s indicative of the self-understandingof Americanphilosophers oday) as an analytic philosopher,but likemanyothersofherpolitical generation n variousdisciplines,she findsher intellectualmooring n currentEuropean ocialtheory.Out of eightessaysin UnrulyPractices,hree are on the Frenchphilosopherof historyMichelFoucault,one is on recent Parisian ntellectual debatesabout the politicalimplicationsof JacquesDerrida'sheoryof deconstruction,andanotheris onthe treatmentofgenderwithin the workofJiirgenHabermas, Germansocialtheoristwhocontinues the Frankfurtchool tradition.These aretheoreticallydemandingessaysandwillbeappreciatedmostreadilybythatinterdisciplinarygroupof academic feminists,poststructuralists,nd post-Marxistswho fre-quentlyidentifytheir work as "culturalpolitics."Recent continental social theory providesan importantfoundationforanyoneattemptingto articulatea gendered heoreticalposition,andyet it isalso a highly problematicsourceof supportfor a socialist-feministpolitics.Fraser'sssaysreflect this tension,bothdirectly n termsof hercriticalanalysisof these thinkers,and alsoindirectly n termsof hernot-fully-satisfying ffort

questionshe set out to addressby arguing hat the realandapparentdesiresofwomencan be distinguished hroughreference o a "true elf."The "true elf"she offers,however,is only a slightlyreworkedversion of the Enlightenmentsubject.What feministtheoryneeds is a conceptionof self that displaces heEnlightenmentdichotomies,a self that can accountforresistanceand creativ-ity without recourse o a transcendentconstitutingsubject.

Unruly Practices:Power, Discourse, and Gender in ContemporarySocialTheory. ByNANCY FRASER.Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress,1989.Patricia . Mann

Nancy Frasers a socialistfeminist and a philosopher.While the essays nUnrulyPracticeswere writtenseparatelyover the pastdecade,Fraser uggeststhat we read them as "the recordof one socialist-feminist's nd formerNewLeftactivist's truggle o beapoliticallycommitted,critical ntellectualwithinthe academy" 2). Fraser'sdysseycorrespondswith that of othermembersofa studentgenerationwhose intellectualandpersonaldevelopmentwas nerad-icablyaffectedby theirparticipationn the civil rights,antiwar,andfeministactivismof the sixties andseventies,and who then went on in the eightiestopursuecareers within mainstreamsocial institutions such as the academy.UnrulyPractices rovidesa fascinatingview of the complexintellectualnego-tiationsa politicallysavvywomanchoosesto makein order o be heard n anacademiccontext.Fraserwas "trained" the technical terminology s indicative of the self-understandingof Americanphilosophers oday) as an analytic philosopher,but likemanyothersofherpolitical generation n variousdisciplines,she findsher intellectualmooring n currentEuropean ocialtheory.Out of eightessaysin UnrulyPractices,hree are on the Frenchphilosopherof historyMichelFoucault,one is on recent Parisian ntellectual debatesabout the politicalimplicationsof JacquesDerrida'sheoryof deconstruction,andanotheris onthe treatmentofgenderwithin the workofJiirgenHabermas, Germansocialtheoristwhocontinues the Frankfurtchool tradition.These aretheoreticallydemandingessaysandwillbeappreciatedmostreadilybythatinterdisciplinarygroupof academic feminists,poststructuralists,nd post-Marxistswho fre-quentlyidentifytheir work as "culturalpolitics."Recent continental social theory providesan importantfoundationforanyoneattemptingto articulatea gendered heoreticalposition,andyet it isalso a highly problematicsourceof supportfor a socialist-feministpolitics.Fraser'sssaysreflect this tension,bothdirectly n termsof hercriticalanalysisof these thinkers,and alsoindirectly n termsof hernot-fully-satisfying ffort

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to formulateher own socialist-feministcriticaltheoryin the concludingtwoessaysof UnrulyPractices. he primary roblemies in the negativetheoreticallegacyof the Marxian raditionwith respectto issuesof political agencyandsocialprogress.Fraser onfrontsthis issuerepeatedlyyet cannot finallyartic-ulate what distinguishes he politics of womenasfeministsromthat of othersocialgroups.Political activismof the sixties and seventiesgainedits sense of politicalagencyfromthe immediate conflicts at hand. The strugglesagainstracism,sexism,and a "racist-imperialist"ar in Vietnamtook theirpolitics from aneclectic theoreticalbrew,drawinguponthepacifismof Gandhi atone momentand HerbertMarcuse'sheoryof participatory emocracy n the next. Yet forsubsequentefforts to theorize sexual and racialoppression,Marx's heoryofthe economic oppressionof the workingclassprovidedthe dominantmodel.One of the foundation stones of this theoryof oppressionwas the critiqueofthe basicliberal deal of individualeconomic andpoliticalagency.Only averyfew workerswill everraise themselves out of povertyby theirown individualefforts,Marxargued.Workersmustgive up their illusions of individualsocialagencyandstruggle ogetherasa classagainstthe capitalistoppressors.The liberal ideal of individual economic and political agency survivedMarx'scritique,of course,and is even seeing a powerfulresurgence odayinthe context of the waningof communism n the Soviet Union and EasternEurope.But the theoreticalimplicationsof Marx'scritiqueof the efficacyofindividualagencyin struggling gainstvarious ormsof socialoppressionwentbeyondhis ownapplicationof themin termsof classstruggle.The relationshipbetweenindividualagencyand various ormsof socialoppressions one of theprimaryconcerns todaywithin continental social theoryand is particularlysalient within the worksof the late Michel Foucault.Fraser ogentlyexplainswhy Foucault,with his analysisof the insidiousrelationshipbetween powerandknowledgeand his theoryof the "capillary"ualityof relationsof powerand domination, provides profound supportfor feminist investigationsofpatriarchal ppression.And yet, with his "antihumanist" elief that subjectiv-ity in all its guisesis no more than a means of domination,Foucaultseemstodenythepossibilityof thepoliticaleffortsof women to resistmaledomination.Fraseruses the argumentativemachineryof analytic philosophyto neutralizeexpertlyFoucault'santihumanism.Then, with a "feministmacho"noncha-lance, she simplyasserts hat ground-breakingwork on "the reassessment fhumanism"s presentlybeing done by a numberof feminists,some of whomshe lists (51-52).

JiirgenHabermas s the mostsignificantsocial thinkerpresentlywilling todefendhumanistparadigms f individualagency,andFraser'sssayexplicatinghis social-theoretical rameworks extremely nteresting.While "takingseri-ously his professedsupportfor the cause of women'sliberation"(7), Fraseruncoversa"gender ubtext"within his theory hat makes t impossible orhim

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to appreciate he emancipatorypotential of manysocial changesassociatedwith the recent women'smovement. She berateshimformaking"nomentionin his schema of any childrearer ole"(125). She also criticizeshis view thatit is "pathological"orchildrearingo becomeincorporatednto the systemofpaideconomic labor, orcefullyarguing hat Habermas's osition amountsto"a defenseof an institutionalarrangementhat is widelyheld to be one, if notthe, linchpin of modem women'ssubordination"121-22).Though Fraser ntends to draw from her critiqueof Habermasa sense of"what he categorial ramework fasocialist-feminist riticaltheoryofwelfarestatecapitalismshould look like"(138), hercriticalinsightsdo not translatesoreadily ntopositivewisdom.Inthe last twoessaysofUnrulyPractices, raserattempts o articulateasocialist-feministheoryof the currentwelfare tatebyfocusingon what she terms "thepoliticsof need interpretation." he arguesthat theremustbe a gendered einterpretationf the needsthatawelfare tateshouldsatisfy. none essay,Fraserocuseson the differentialreatmentof menand women when they become dependent upon the state, contrastingthesocial stigmatizationwhich attachesto "feminine""means-tested" rogramslike AFDC with the greaterdignityaccorded ecipientsof "masculine" socialinsurance"programs.Only the latter treat those who receive benefits as"rights-bearers."na secondessay,Fraser nalyzesheprocessesbywhichneedstraditionally ssociatedwithwomen and the family, uch as needsforchildcareservices enter the public sphereand become politicizedanddepoliticized.ncontrast with feministswho oppose"rights-talk," raserbelieves that insofarasindividuals n thissocietyareempoweredby havingthe state'sresponsibilitytoward hem articulatedasa matterof legalrights,the mostsignificantneedsof women too shouldbe translatednto "socialrights."While I disagreewith verylittle of what Fraser aysin these essays,I thinkshe fails to meet the goal she has set herself of providing"the sort of bigdiagnostic picture necessaryto orient [the current]political practice"ofsocialistfeminism(11). Perhaps he goalis simply oo ambitious orany singleindividual o satisfy.YetI wishFraserhadmade more of an effortto call uponthe resourcesof analyticphilosophy.It is truethat analyticphilosophersookall the wayback to ImmanuelKantandJeremyBenthamfortheirparadigmsof social relations.This disciplinaryustinessexplainsthe greatresistance otheoriesof genderwithin philosophy;yet this two-hundred-year acuum insocialphilosophyalso explainsthe one advantage hat philosophyholdsoutto a feminist.UnfazedbecauseuntouchedbyMarxianorFreudiannotions ofthe social constitution of individuals,or by the irrationalitiesof individualthought, philosophy offersan outmodedyet still seaworthyvessel for anythinkerseeking to ride out the storms of postmodemdisillusionmentwithnotions of agencyandprogress.

Had Fraserutilizedthe worksof analyticpoliticalthinkerswhen she finallycame to formulatehersocialist-feministheoryof the welfarestate,she could

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have exploited the admittedly very "thin" theories of political agency andindividualrightsavailablewithin political philosophytoday.Alan Gewirth,forexample,hasargued hata"right owell-being"sas fundamentalas a"rightto freedom" nsofaras both freedomandwell-beingarenecessaryconditionsof voluntaryactionby individuals.AlthoughGewirth's heoryis Kantianandabstract, t offerspotential, if unwitting,support orFraser'socialist-feministtheoryof needs.I think feministtheory s mosttransgressivewhen it implicatesthe theories of such well-meaning liberals in its designs. Moreover,inaddressingmainstreamthinkers,we insert ourselves into the tradition andbecomeits cutting edge (Gewirth 1978).1In UnrulyPractices,Fraserbringsan analytic philosopher'sconcern forconceptual clarityto the dauntingtaskof evaluatingthe work of an elusivevanguardof social theorists. For those who have experiencedconfusionandfrustrationn attemptingto squarean apparently"naive"feminist commit-ment to politicalagencyand socialprogresswith myriad ormsof modem andpostmoder socialpessimism,Fraser'sssays,"seasonedwith socialhope,"willprovegratifying.Generous nherappreciation fthesemale"masterhinkers,"Frasermakes t clear that her theoreticalbottom line is socialist feminism.

NOTES1.SeeOkin(1989)fora recent eministttempto insert endernto thewidelydiscussed,iberalheory fjustice fJohnRawls.

REFERENCESGewirth, lan.1978.Reasonndmorality.hicago: niversityfChicagoPress.Okin,SusanMoller. 1989.Justice, ender, ndthe amily.New York:Basic Books.

Feminism/Postmoderism. EditedbyLINDANICHOLSON. New YorkandLondon:Routledge,1990.AndreaNye

The paperscollected in Feminism/Postmodemism,dited by LindaNichol-son, are a responseto the challenge presentedby two recent developments.First,afteran initial periodof apparentunity in the contemporary eministmovement,angryvoices beganto be heardquestioninga feministhumanismthat threatened o be asexclusionaryof those who are not white, middleclass,and heterosexual as is the much indicted-masculineversion of humanism.

have exploited the admittedly very "thin" theories of political agency andindividualrightsavailablewithin political philosophytoday.Alan Gewirth,forexample,hasargued hata"right owell-being"sas fundamentalas a"rightto freedom" nsofaras both freedomandwell-beingarenecessaryconditionsof voluntaryactionby individuals.AlthoughGewirth's heoryis Kantianandabstract, t offerspotential, if unwitting,support orFraser'socialist-feministtheoryof needs.I think feministtheory s mosttransgressivewhen it implicatesthe theories of such well-meaning liberals in its designs. Moreover,inaddressingmainstreamthinkers,we insert ourselves into the tradition andbecomeits cutting edge (Gewirth 1978).1In UnrulyPractices,Fraserbringsan analytic philosopher'sconcern forconceptual clarityto the dauntingtaskof evaluatingthe work of an elusivevanguardof social theorists. For those who have experiencedconfusionandfrustrationn attemptingto squarean apparently"naive"feminist commit-ment to politicalagencyand socialprogresswith myriad ormsof modem andpostmoder socialpessimism,Fraser'sssays,"seasonedwith socialhope,"willprovegratifying.Generous nherappreciation fthesemale"masterhinkers,"Frasermakes t clear that her theoreticalbottom line is socialist feminism.

NOTES1.SeeOkin(1989)fora recent eministttempto insert endernto thewidelydiscussed,iberalheory fjustice fJohnRawls.

REFERENCESGewirth, lan.1978.Reasonndmorality.hicago: niversityfChicagoPress.Okin,SusanMoller. 1989.Justice, ender, ndthe amily.New York:Basic Books.

Feminism/Postmoderism. EditedbyLINDANICHOLSON. New YorkandLondon:Routledge,1990.AndreaNye

The paperscollected in Feminism/Postmodemism,dited by LindaNichol-son, are a responseto the challenge presentedby two recent developments.First,afteran initial periodof apparentunity in the contemporary eministmovement,angryvoices beganto be heardquestioninga feministhumanismthat threatened o be asexclusionaryof those who are not white, middleclass,and heterosexual as is the much indicted-masculineversion of humanism.

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