A critical exploration of feminist politics under conditions of modernity and contemporary globalization.
[Thesis]
Steans, Jill A.
University of Keele
1999
Ph.D.
University of Keele
1999
The thesis attempts to construct a preliminary framework with which tounderstand: (1) the nature of feminism as a modern social movement; (2) theexpansion of modernity to a global scale; and (3) the immanent institutionaltransformations opened up by the expansion of modernity which make possible adialogic form of feminist politics. The thesis is divided into three main sections. Thefirst section explores the nature of feminism as a social movement, sketches therelationship between feminism and modernity and explains how these interests relateto contemporary debates about globalization. The broad conclusions drawn from thediscussion is that feminism is a modem social movement rooted in an Enlightenmentproject of emancipation and progress. However, modernity must be viewed as amatrix of tensions and critical potentials. The second section of the thesis considersthe potential and limitation of a Global Political Economy (GPE) framework formaking sense of feminism in the context of the conditions of modernity andglobalization. It concludes that although it is a useful starting place for making senseof feminism as a social movement, critical GPE is not in itself sufficient. Havingexplored the potential and limitations of a GPE framework for understandingfeminism in a global context, the third section turns to contemporary scholarship inthe field of social and political theory. The brief concluding chapter of the thesis pullstogether the main themes of the previous chapters and maps out tentatively how therelationship between feminist politics, the project of modernity and globalization canbe understood