Contents

pp vii-viii

Preface

pp ix-xi

Acknowledgements

pp xii-xiv

Introduction: the contemporary reconfiguring of social theory

pp 1-18

Part I - Resisting difference: the malaise of the human sciences

pp 19-20

1 - The political unconscious of the human sciences

pp 21-42

2 - The end of sociological theory

pp 43-60

3 - Relativizing sociology: the challenge of cultural studies

pp 61-80

4 - The refusal of sexual difference: queering sociology

pp 81-96

5 - Difference troubles: the flight of sociology from “otherness”

pp 97-106

Part II - Engaging difference: from lesbian and gay studies to queer theory

pp 107-108

6 - Identity and politics in a “postmodern” gay culture

pp 109-138

7 - Deconstructing queer theory, or, some difficulties in a theory and politics of difference

pp 139-162

Part III - Democratic prospects: the politics of knowledge and identity

pp 163-164

8 - Transfiguring sexual identity: AIDS and the cultural politcs of sexuality and homosexuality, 1981–1986

pp 165-184

9 - From gay ethnicity to queer politics: the renewal of gay radicalism in the United States

pp 185-197

10 - Postmodern anxiety: the politics of epistemology

pp 198-211

11 - The politics of sexual difference in late twentieth-century America

pp 212-236

12 - Difference and democracy: group recognition and the political cultures of the US, Holland, and France

pp 237-254

Epilogue: pragmatism, difference and a culture of strong democracy

pp 255-265

Notes

pp 266-281

References

pp 282-303

Index

pp 304-307