This collection of essays addresses the issues and concerns raised by the emphasis on society not as a series of homogeneous interlocking blocks, but as a plethora of different, sometimes overlapping and often conflicting communities. Reflecting, for example, on the experience of the GLC's attempt to create a new "majority of minorities" and on the clash of values and beliefs over "The Satanic Verses", these pieces explore both the opportunities and problems presented by the growing diversity of communities, cultures and identities in contemporary society. Topics covered include: consumerism and the impact of green politics; racism and psychoanalysis; ethics and values; AIDS and citizenship; and feminism and age.
A place called home - identity and the cultural politics of difference, Jonathan Rutherford; feminism - dead or alive?, Andrea Stuart; welcome to the jungle - identity and diversity in postmodern politics, Kobena Mercer; confinement, Frances Angela; the value of difference, Jeffrey Weeks; black feminism - the politics of articulation, Pratibha Parmar; live for Sharam and die for Izzat, Zarina Bhimji; practices of freedom - "citizenship" and the politics of identity in the age of AIDS, Simon Watney; a nasty piece of work - psychoanalytic study of sexual and racial difference in "Mona Lisa", Lola Young; the third space - interview with Homi Bhabha; cultural identity and diaspora, Stuart Hall.
