Margaret A McLaren
Margaret A. McLaren holds the George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Chair of Philosophy at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida where she teaches Philosophy and in the Program of Sexuality, Gender, and Women’s Studies (SWAG).
She received her M.A. and Ph. D. in philosophy from Northwestern University.
She is the author of Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity (2002, State University of New York Press), and the editor of Decolonizing Feminism: Transnational Feminism and Globalization (2017, Rowman and Littlefield International). Her articles on gender issues, women and human rights, multiculturalism, Foucault, feminism, and virtue ethics have appeared in several journals, including Social Theory and Practice, Journal of Developing Societies, Forum on Public Policy, Philosophy Today, and Hypatia, and book anthologies including, Feminism and the Final Foucault, Feminists Doing Ethics, and Florida Without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and Global.
Her most recent book, Women's Activism, Feminism, and Social Justice (Oxford University Press, 2019) argues that the comprehensive model for social change and social justice employed by some grassroots women's organization in India could provide a useful model for a transnational feminist approach to social justice. The comprehensive social justice model used by these grassroots women's organizations in India successfully negotiates some pervasive tensions in feminist theory and philosophical discourse: between universal human rights and respecting cultural integrity, between political and civil rights and economic and social rights, between the local and the global, and between the individual and the collective.
Phone: 407 646-1508 (o.)
Address: Department of Philosophy and Religion
Rollins College
1000 Holt Ave.
Winter Park, FL 32789-4499
She received her M.A. and Ph. D. in philosophy from Northwestern University.
She is the author of Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity (2002, State University of New York Press), and the editor of Decolonizing Feminism: Transnational Feminism and Globalization (2017, Rowman and Littlefield International). Her articles on gender issues, women and human rights, multiculturalism, Foucault, feminism, and virtue ethics have appeared in several journals, including Social Theory and Practice, Journal of Developing Societies, Forum on Public Policy, Philosophy Today, and Hypatia, and book anthologies including, Feminism and the Final Foucault, Feminists Doing Ethics, and Florida Without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and Global.
Her most recent book, Women's Activism, Feminism, and Social Justice (Oxford University Press, 2019) argues that the comprehensive model for social change and social justice employed by some grassroots women's organization in India could provide a useful model for a transnational feminist approach to social justice. The comprehensive social justice model used by these grassroots women's organizations in India successfully negotiates some pervasive tensions in feminist theory and philosophical discourse: between universal human rights and respecting cultural integrity, between political and civil rights and economic and social rights, between the local and the global, and between the individual and the collective.
Phone: 407 646-1508 (o.)
Address: Department of Philosophy and Religion
Rollins College
1000 Holt Ave.
Winter Park, FL 32789-4499
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Current Projects by Margaret A McLaren
January 2021Gender and Development 29(1):131-150
DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1885218
well suited for transnational feminism analyses. Young’s work
reveals the intersections of ethical, social, and political theory;
her model of political responsibility articulates a view of shared
social and political responsibility for the structural conditions
of exploitation and domination. Young’s theory of political
responsibility provides an account that views responsibility for
social injustice as both deeply personal, and shared. She argues
that we can only discharge our political responsibility by engaging
with others in collective actions that seek to change unjust
situation and institutions. I argue that Young’s model of political
responsibility, because of its focus on structural injustice, provides
a more nuanced account of global justice than either a human
rights framework, or a cosmopolitan framework. Because Young’s
theory of political responsibility focuses on structural injustice we
can use it to analyze inequalities and asymmetries of power with
respect to gender and in terms of structural injustice.
Books by Margaret A McLaren
Relational cosmopolitanism prioritizes our connections while, crucially, acknowledging the reality of power differences. Extending Iris Young's theory of political responsibility, McLaren shows how Fair Trade connects to the economic solidarity movement. The Self-Employed Women's Association and MarketPlace India empower women through access to livelihoods as well as fostering leadership capabilities that allow them to challenge structural injustice through political and social activism. Their struggles to resist economic exploitation and gender oppression through collective action show the vital importance of challenging individualist approaches to achieving gender justice. The book is a rallying call for a shift in our thinking and practice towards re-imagining the possibilities for justice from a relational framework, from independence to interdependence, from identity to intersectionality, and from interest to socio-political imagination.
Focusing on the issue of decolonizing feminism, this volume takes up a range of important questions: Which methodologies promote a decolonized transnational feminism? How is decolonization enacted in specific locations and projects? Are the visions of a global feminism and transnational feminism compatible? Is the human rights approach the best way for feminists to improve women’s well being in the 21st century? How do social locations/positionalities/identities influence proposed strategies for achieving global gender justice? What are some possible interfaces between the local and the global? What strategies of resistance work against the force of neo-liberal globalization? How do we (feminists) create networks of solidarity transnationally?
The authors in this volume engage with these questions in a variety of ways from a range of perspectives, traditions, and disciplinary backgrounds. Our hope is to contribute to the ongoing project of advocating a decolonizing feminist approach to pressing social issues. We offer original analyses and some methodological suggestions, while opening up space for creative and innovative ways to address gender and social justice issues.
Papers by Margaret A McLaren
January 2021Gender and Development 29(1):131-150
DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1885218
well suited for transnational feminism analyses. Young’s work
reveals the intersections of ethical, social, and political theory;
her model of political responsibility articulates a view of shared
social and political responsibility for the structural conditions
of exploitation and domination. Young’s theory of political
responsibility provides an account that views responsibility for
social injustice as both deeply personal, and shared. She argues
that we can only discharge our political responsibility by engaging
with others in collective actions that seek to change unjust
situation and institutions. I argue that Young’s model of political
responsibility, because of its focus on structural injustice, provides
a more nuanced account of global justice than either a human
rights framework, or a cosmopolitan framework. Because Young’s
theory of political responsibility focuses on structural injustice we
can use it to analyze inequalities and asymmetries of power with
respect to gender and in terms of structural injustice.
Relational cosmopolitanism prioritizes our connections while, crucially, acknowledging the reality of power differences. Extending Iris Young's theory of political responsibility, McLaren shows how Fair Trade connects to the economic solidarity movement. The Self-Employed Women's Association and MarketPlace India empower women through access to livelihoods as well as fostering leadership capabilities that allow them to challenge structural injustice through political and social activism. Their struggles to resist economic exploitation and gender oppression through collective action show the vital importance of challenging individualist approaches to achieving gender justice. The book is a rallying call for a shift in our thinking and practice towards re-imagining the possibilities for justice from a relational framework, from independence to interdependence, from identity to intersectionality, and from interest to socio-political imagination.
Focusing on the issue of decolonizing feminism, this volume takes up a range of important questions: Which methodologies promote a decolonized transnational feminism? How is decolonization enacted in specific locations and projects? Are the visions of a global feminism and transnational feminism compatible? Is the human rights approach the best way for feminists to improve women’s well being in the 21st century? How do social locations/positionalities/identities influence proposed strategies for achieving global gender justice? What are some possible interfaces between the local and the global? What strategies of resistance work against the force of neo-liberal globalization? How do we (feminists) create networks of solidarity transnationally?
The authors in this volume engage with these questions in a variety of ways from a range of perspectives, traditions, and disciplinary backgrounds. Our hope is to contribute to the ongoing project of advocating a decolonizing feminist approach to pressing social issues. We offer original analyses and some methodological suggestions, while opening up space for creative and innovative ways to address gender and social justice issues.
cover of issue
guest co-edited this special issue with Joshua Mills-Knutsen
available through On-lIne First now, or print copy in June