Synopses & Reviews
Over the past decade, mainstream feminist theory has repeatedly and urgently cautioned against arguments which assert the existence of fundamentalor essentialdifferences between men and women. Any biological or natural differences between the sexes are often flatly denied, on the grounds that such an acknowledgment will impede women's claims to equal treatment.
In Caring for Justice, Robin West turns her sensitive, measured eye to the consequences of this widespread refusal to consider how women's lived experiences and perspectives may differ from those of men. Her work calls attention to two critical areas in which an inadequate recognition of women's distinctive experiences has failed jurisprudence. We are in desperate need, she contends, both of a theory of justice which incorporates women's distinctive moral voice on the meaning of justice into our discourse, and of a theory of harm which better acknowledges, compensates, and seeks to prevent the various harms which women, disproportionately and distinctively, suffer.
Providing a fresh feminist perspective on traditional jurisprudence, West examines such issues as the nature of justice, the concept of harm, economic theories of value, and the utility of constitutional discourse. She illuminates the adverse repercussions of the anti-essentialist position for jurisprudence, and offers strategies for correcting them. Far from espousing a return to essentialism, West argues an anti- anti-essentialism, which greatly refines our understanding of the similarities and differences between women and men.
Review
"Throws a brilliant light on one of the most hidden aspects of the immigrant experiencenamely, the private but absolutely crucial relationships in the home between immigrant parents and their U.S.-reared children."
- Richard Alba, co-editor of Immigration and Religion in America
Review
"This powerful volume brings together scholarship on immigrant parents and their children by some of the most original thinkers in the field."
-—Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo,author of God's Heart Has No Borders
Review
"This timely and enlightening volume opens a window on immigrant families from a wide range of countries and cultures, and vividly explores the nature of relationships between parents and children growing up between two worlds."
-—Rubén G. Rumbaut,co-author of Immigrant America
Review
“Across Generations is effective . . . in providing a new depth and dimension to immigrants. With a rare glimpse into immigrant family life, Across Generations captures the voices of people who are straddling two worlds and two generations.”
-The Indypendent,
Review
"Throws a brilliant light on one of the most hidden aspects of the immigrant experiencenamely, the private but absolutely crucial relationships in the home between immigrant parents and their U.S.-reared children."
- Richard Alba, co-editor of Immigration and Religion in America
"This powerful volume brings together scholarship on immigrant parents and their children by some of the most original thinkers in the field."
- Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, author of God's Heart Has No Borders
"This timely and enlightening volume opens a window on immigrant families from a wide range of countries and cultures, and vividly explores the nature of relationships between parents and children growing up between two worlds."
- Rubén G. Rumbaut, co-author of Immigrant America
“Across Generations is effective . . . in providing a new depth and dimension to immigrants. With a rare glimpse into immigrant family life, Across Generations captures the voices of people who are straddling two worlds and two generations.”
- The Indypendent
Review
"The ethnographic case studies therein focus on a myriad of issues faced by immigrant families and, in particular, second generation children. As such, it presents a more nuanced view of inter-generational relations and the resultant tensions between homeland and the challenges of a 'new' world."
"Throws a brilliant light on one of the most hidden aspects of the immigrant experience—namely, the private but absolutely crucial relationships in the home between immigrant parents and their U.S.-reared children."
"This powerful volume brings together scholarship on immigrant parents and their children by some of the most original thinkers in the field."
"This timely and enlightening volume opens a window on immigrant families from a wide range of countries and cultures, and vividly explores the nature of relationships between parents and children growing up between two worlds."
“Across Generations is effective . . . in providing a new depth and dimension to immigrants. With a rare glimpse into immigrant family life, Across Generations captures the voices of people who are straddling two worlds and two generations.”
Review
"Starkly essentialist reasoning sounds almost quaint by today's standards of gender equality. So it is with some surprise that general readers will encounter an intense and carefully reasoned defense of essentialism from the pen of one of America's best-known feminist legal theorists." -Women's Review of Books,
Review
"By critiquing traditional ideas about 'justice,' including economic theories about value, this provocative feminist jurisprudential scholar advances what she calls an 'ethic of care' and argues that 'if adjudication is to be just, then the goal of good judging must be both justice and care.'"-Georgia Bar Journal,
Synopsis
Immigrants and their American-born children represent about one quarter of the United States population. Drawing on rich, in-depth ethnographic research, the fascinating case studies in
Across Generations examine the intricacies of relations between the generations in a broad range of immigrant groups—from Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa—and give a sense of what everyday life is like in immigrant families.
Moving beyond the cliché of the children of immigrants engaging in pitched battles against tradition-bound parents from the old country, these vivid essays offer a nuanced view that brings out the ties that bind the generations as well as the tensions that divide them. Tackling key issues like parental discipline, marriage choices, educational and occupational expectations, legal status, and transnational family ties, Across Generations brings crucial insights to our understanding of the United States as a nation of immigrants.
Contributors: Leisy Abrego, JoAnn D'Alisera, Joanna Dreby, Yen Le Espiritu, Greta Gilbertson, Nazli Kibria, Cecilia Menjívar, Jennifer E. Sykes, Mary C. Waters, and Min Zhou.
About the Author
Nancy Foner is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of numerous books, including In a New Land (NYU Press). She is the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Career Award given by the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association.