Essencialized Identities/Activated Violences

Abstract

This paper aims to underline that neither the universalist point of view nor the particularist one can ignore the contributions made by each other. Both approaches are necessary to a better understanding of the complexity of nowadays multicultural claims, and both can contribute to a solution. So thinking, I first analyse various conceptualizations of «identity». Then I show how claims on distributive justice turn into identity claims. In the third place, I discuss some consecuences of understanding «identity» not as a political construction but as an ontological characteristic. Finally, I consider how women had historically been «mediators», and the risks this implied. I draw some conclusions tending to show both the importance of universal conceptions and the attention due to identity movements and their claims.