Freedom Fit for a Feminist? On the Feminist Potential of Quentin Skinner's Conception of Republican Freedom
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to make it credible that there are feminist reasons for being a republican about freedom. In focus is Quentin Skinner's conception of republican, or “neo-Roman”, freedom. Republican theory in history has not excelled in making poverty, gender hierarchy, and racism within the republic into main sources of concern. So can there be a radical republican theory of liberty fit for a feminist, to make sense of arbitrary power in the every day life of work, households, and local communities, where power is vague and unorganized? Proceeding from three questions – What does freedom mean? Under what circumstances does the issue arise? Why should we care? – I argue that in a feminist republicanism the lived experience of the unfree will have primary and not, as Skinner now suggests, secondary importance. A feminist republican will be particularly concerned not only with what unfreedom is but with what it is like.
DOI: 10.7227/r.17.1.5
Author: Lena Halldenius
Institution: Lund University
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2139093155