Race, Class and Community Identity

by Andrew Light (Editor)

The inaugural volume of the new book series Radical Philosophy Today is an anthology of the best papers read at the 1996 Radical Philosophy Association conference. Divided into three sections—"The Production of Race and Ethnicity"; "Past, Present, and Future of Class Analysis"; and "Community Identity, Violence, and the Neoliberal State"—this important, topical collection focuses on the current interests of philosophers within a broad range of leftist orientations. Despite the intransigent nature of many of the problems discussed, the contributors to this volume demonstrate the possibilities for developing a viable alternative politics.

Part one attempts to broaden and deepen discussions of race in philosophical terms, including a critical discussion of "whiteness." Part two critically examines Marxism with an eye toward adapting it more carefully to contemporary "First World" (U.S. society in particular) problems, and shows how Marxist analysis can be expanded to include spiritual and ecological considerations. The final section of the book looks at the radical potential of the communitarian critique of liberalism, discusses insidious violence in relation to the liberal state, and concludes with a critique of Francis Fukuyama's contention that neoliberalism is the only workable political state formation.

The contributors include John Brentlinger, Frank Cunningham, Stephen Hartnett, Thomas M. Jeannot, Joel Kovel, Xiaorong Li, Steve Martinot, Charles W. Mills, Patrick Murray, Richard Peterson, Jeanne Schuler, Tony Smith, and Gabriel Vargas.

233 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Andrew Light, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow at American Progress specializing in climate, energy, and science policy. He coordinates American Progress’s participation in the Global Climate Network, focusing on international climate change policy and the future of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is also director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University.

Light is an internationally recognized expert on the relationship between environmental policy and ethics, specializing in restoration ecology, urban ecology, and climate change. He also comments frequently on the ethical and social impacts of new and emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology and synthetic biology. On these topics he has authored, co-authored, and edited 17 books including: Environmental Values (2008); Philosophy and Design (2008); Controlling Technology (2005); Environmental Ethics (2003); Moral and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice (2003); Technology and the Good Life? (2000); and Environmental Pragmatism (1996). Light is also co-editor of the journal Ethics, Place, and Environment.

Light is a frequent advisor to various agencies on the ethical dimensions of environmental and technology policy, including the U.S. Forest Service, the National Parks Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation. He is currently working on questions of fairness and equity in national and international regimes for climate regulation and the social impacts of new energy technologies.

His doctoral work was at the University of California at Riverside and UCLA in ethics and public policy, and he completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in environmental risk assessment in the School of Medicine at the University of Alberta.