The Politics of Identity at the Moment of State Formation

The starting point of the round-table discussion
'Identity Policies at the Moment of State Formation' is a hypothesis about the irreconcilable relations between different levels of social presence, between differences in political or legal and cultural presence. Questions of social inclusion or exclusion
often arise in relation to certain groups,
such as women, the gay and  lesbian population, the  elderly, handicapped and others; their position is especially debatable in post-socialism, in the period of so-called social transition, because
criteria of civil presence/absence are still
being established.   

Here we cannot overlook the theoretical and campaigning  points of
the politics of identity and the strategies
of new  social movements, since it
is through them that the above-mentioned groups established themselves as  significant political factors. The major principle of the politics
of identity is that (gender, sexual, social, and cultural) identity is the basis
for radical policies. New  social
movements arising from the politics of identity have provoked the politicisation of the categories of gender, sexuality, race, ethnic
identity, social relations, life-styles and cultures which,
before their intervention, belonged to the area of
the non-political and privacy, which opened up
an insight into many forms of domination and exclusion, in racism, sexism, and homophobia.    

The image of a transitional period is also shown through ways according to which identities promoted by new social movements are included or excluded from the social sphere. If the emphases of new social movements in the 'Nineties, in the era of state-formation, are being
abandoned, if identities focused around gender, sexuality, etc., again fall into the area
of the private, the particular, and not social, political relevance, we can state the following hypothesis, a different starting point for
the discussion: presence in public life does not suppose a presence which would lead to real political power.

Nataša Velikonja

Concept: Nataša Velikonja, participants: dr. Dušan Rutar, dr. Vlasta Jalušić, Tatjana Greif, dr. Tanja Rener, moderated by: Nataša Sukič

Organised by Revija Lesbo and City of Women, supported by: Office for Women's Policy of Slovenia 

Admission free