The Multiplicity of Feminism: Syntheses of the Local and the Universal

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Abstract

Any universal definitions of feminism - as well as what constitutes feminist theory, political strategy, and related practices - are problematic. The patriarchal relations that feminists oppose have different configurations depending on the social, economic, cultural and political contexts. Consequently, there are various feminisms: multiple syntheses of local and universal knowledge. This article analyzes the conceptual and political rifts within the “global” feminism associated with the hegemony of “western” ideas and its criticism by transnational and postcolonial feminists and examines the postsocialist transformations and localizations of feminism and, in particular, the evolution of feminist ideas in post-soviet Russia.

About the authors

Anna V. Kuteleva

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Author for correspondence.
Email: akuteleva@hse.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7805-1607

PhD in Political Science, Research Fellow, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Moscow, Russian Federation

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