What is the meaning of 1968, a year which figures large in the
social imaginary? This volume brings together leading social theorists as well as
promising younger scholars to examine the phenomenon of '1968' from a number of innovative
perspectives, including situating 1968 in global context.
The first section includes chapters by leading scholars who were witness
to the events, reflecting on untold narratives of race, gender and sexuality as well as
weaving their own personal stories into the analysis. The second section critically
addresses the standard theoretical concepts and assumptions of 1968. The final
section examines 'other voices', examining the struggles of African students,
immigrants in France, transgender peoples, and provides a critique of the notion of 'other
voices'. The volume also explores if and when 1968 'ended'.
GURMINDER K. BHAMBRA is Assistant Professor in the Sociology
Department at the University of Warwick, UK. She is author of Rethinking Modernity:
Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination, which won the 2008 Philip Abrams
Memorial Prize for best first book in Sociology, and co-editor (with Robbie Shilliam) of
Silencing Human Rights: Critical Engagements with a Contested Project.
IPEK DEMIR is Lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of
Leicester, UK. Her work draws on social theory, political philosophy and science studies.
Her publications include Incommensurabilities in the Work of Thomas Kuhn, Studies in
History and Philosophy of Science, 2008 (39) and Thomas Kuhn's Construction of Scientific
Communities in Returning (to) Communities: Theory, Culture and Political Practice of the
Communal, edited by S. Herbrechter and M.T. Higgins.
Table of Contents
Introduction: 1968 in Retrospect; G.K.Bhambra & I.Demir
PART I: RETHINKING HISTORICAL NARRATIVES
Freedom Now: 1968 as a Turning Point for Black American Student Activism; P.Hill
Collins
She's Leaving Home! Repositioning Women in the Narratives of the Sixties; L.Segal
Outsiders, Deviants and Countercultures: Subterranean Tribes and Queer
Imaginations in 1968; K.Plummer
PART II: THEORETICAL ENGAGEMENTS
From 1968 to 1951: How Habermas Turned Marx into Parsons; J.Holmwood
Critical Theory and Crisis Diagnosis: The Reconciliation of Reason and Revolution
after 1968; T.Skillington
On Totalitarianism: The Continuing Relevance of Herbert Marcuse; S.Hornstein
Everyone Longs for a Master: Lacan and 1968; S.Frosh
PART III: OTHER VOICES
May 1968 and the Postcolonial Immigrant in France: Mobilisation, Encounter,
Difference; M.A.Bracke
Turning to Africa: Politics and Student Resistance in Africa since 1968; L.Zeilig
Riding the Waves: Feminism, Lesbian and Gay Politics, and the Transgender Debates; S.Hines
On the Limits of our Political Imagination? Interrogating 'the Other'; M.Panu
Conclusion: When did 1968 End?; W.Outhwaite
224 pages, Hardcover