Page 47 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Changing Definitions of Politics and Power 33

Most importantly for our understanding of cultural politics, social
meanings are not fixed; differences are not closed and final, once and for

all. They cannot be fixed because social actors must continually interpret

and make use of meanings in the company of other people in different
situations. In fact, social meanings are continually changing simply
through repeated use: symbols are meaningful only insofar as they are
used regularly, and a sign that is repeated is always somewhat novel with
respect to the context in which it appears (Derrida, 1978 ). Continuities
are vital to culture; culture is the reproduction of traditions, habits, per-

ceptions, and understandings. But culture is inherently fluid and dynamic,
a continually moving and “ changing same ” (Gilroy, 1993 : 101), which
makes it open to political contestation and at the same time somewhat
resistant to political invention.
On the other hand, meanings may become relatively solidifi ed and

fixed. At the extreme, they may become “ hegemonic ” : taken - for - granted

as if they simply reflect how things are and must be. This is problematic
because settled meanings invariably enable possibilities of action that
favor the projects and dreams of some at the expense of others. Collective
action is needed to challenge and change meanings that have been rela-

tively fixed. To give an example, as married women began to move into
the labor force in greater numbers in the 1960s and ‘ 70s, a new term
became current: “ working mother. ” This apparently neutral defi nition
of what was taken to be a new phenomenon became fashionable, used
routinely in the media and everyday life. In the 1980s, however, with
the rise of the feminist movement, it became much more controversial.
It was seen as contributing to the “ knowledge ” that women were natu-
rally designed for the care of home, husband, and children, that they
were primarily housewives who happened to work outside the home.
As such, it both described and legitimated the “ double burden ” of house-
hold tasks and paid work which increasing numbers of women were
taking on, whilst at the same time calling into question any commitment
some might have, or want to have, to career advancement, more respon-
sibility, or higher pay at work. “ Working mother ” limited the aspira-

tions of those women who identified as such, and it limited all women
by treating them alike as primarily, and naturally, mothers whose fi rst
concern was their duties at home. Feminists in the 1970s and ‘ 80s
challenged the term “ working mother, ” discrediting it as a neutral
description, and at the same time calling into question a whole set of
assumptions which had very real effects on how women could shape
their lives.