Against the Romance of Community

by Miranda Joseph

Community is almost always invoked as an unequivocal good, an indicator of a high quality of life, caring, selflessness, belonging. Into this common portrayal, Against the Romance of Community introduces an uncommon note of caution, a penetrating, sorely needed sense of what, precisely, we are doing when we call upon this ideal. Miranda Joseph explores sites where the ideal of community relentlessly recurs, from debates over art and culture in the popular media, to the discourses and practices of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, to contemporary narratives of economic transformation or "globalization." She shows how community legitimates the social hierarchies of gender, race, nation, and sexuality that capitalism implicitly requires. Joseph argues that social formations, including community, are constituted through the performativity of production. This strategy makes it possible to understand connections between identities and communities that would otherwise seem to be gay consumers in the U.S. and Mexican maquiladora workers; Christian right "family values" and Asian "crony capitalism." Exposing the complicity of social practices, identities, and communities with capitalism, this truly constructive critique opens the possibility of genuine alliances across such differences. Miranda Joseph is associate professor of women's studies at the University of Arizona.

Genres: Cultural Studies, Nonfiction, Academic, Queer, Politics, Sociology, Race

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Vika Kirchenbauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miranda Joseph hammers home the central thesis of the book again and again and again and again: community formations are supplementary to capitalism, rather than in resistance to it (remember: be suspicious of binaries!). A reader familiar with critiques of the neocolonial functioning of NGO's or discourses around niche market capitalism and long tail marketing might find this very tiring. The lengthy Marxist fundamentals in the book are likely to alienate many non-academics. It's a book I had been looking forward to reading, but was disappointed overall. I don't disagree with Joseph's point, but books that show such a little willingness for self-critique, doubt and open questions are becoming less and less interesting to me.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea is enormously compelling, and the early stretches in which Joseph discusses her major case - a gay theatre in California - are heartening enough. But long stretches of endless, dated theoretical throat-clearings blur into long and unnecessary exegeses on Marx that add little if anything to the overall point. Somewhere in this book is a fantastic thirty-page essay with incisive, grounded points to raise that many today need to read. But hell if it's not presented in the full byzantine panoply of regal academese.

[Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most brilliant books! The first part is dense and theoretical, and the chapters get easier to read. Twenty years after it was first published, it provides an important history of conservative thinking about queer politics in the United States that is useful to what is happening today. Definitely recommend, though take your time.

[Katherine]

might read later. is definitely not very accessible (language-wise etc) for the average reader.