Justice Interruptus

A collection of essays, subtitled Critical Reflections on the "Postsocialist" Condition, written as the end of the Cold War seemed to leave the left without a clear programme. Fraser argues that struggles for the recognition of group identity had begun to eclipse struggles for economic redistribution, and that justice now requires both. The opening essay, 'From Redistribution to Recognition?', distinguishes economic from cultural injustice, shows that gender and race are 'bivalent' collectivities suffering both, and contrasts affirmative remedies with transformative ones. 'After the Family Wage' weighs a universal breadwinner model against caregiver parity and proposes a universal caregiver model instead. 'Rethinking the Public Sphere' criticises Habermas for overlooking exclusions and introduces subaltern counterpublics. Other essays trace a genealogy of the word 'dependency', written with Linda Gordon, read the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill hearings, assess Iris Marion Young's politics of difference, and question the supposed opposition between critical theory and post-structuralism.

Its distinction between redistribution and recognition remains one of the most widely used frameworks for asking whether politics should centre on class, identity or both.