Papers by Mara Marin
Effective political action against racial injustice requires a conception of solidarity based on ... more Effective political action against racial injustice requires a conception of solidarity based on the social and material reality of this form of injustice. I develop such a notion of solidarity by extending Iris Young's notion of "gender as seriality" to race. Thus grounded, racial solidarity avoids the problems I show are encountered by Tommie Shelby's " common oppression view " and Robert Gooding-Williams' non-foundational view of solidarity. Against the idea that racial solidarity requires a shared ethno-cultural identity, Tommie Shelby defends the " common oppression view, " based solely on the victims' shared condition of oppression. According to Shelby, all victims of racial oppression can be reasonably expected to endorse a set of principles that will move them to common action. By pointing to the highly controversial nature of claims made in politics, Gooding-Williams sheds doubts on the idea that such principles exist. Defending a view of politics as action-in-concert, marked by reasonable disagreement, Gooding-Williams advances a non-foundational view of solidarity constituted through the controversy of politics rather than given in virtue of pre-political commitments or interests. The problem with such a notion is that it is unable to link the material and social reality of the unjust structures to the forms of political action, and thus it is unable to effectively transform social reality. Extending Young's "gender as seriality" to race, I defend a notion of " structural racial solidarity, " distinguished by its ability to direct political action along material patterns of inequality and disadvantage.
Against standard interpretations of Rousseau according to which he holds the view that humans are... more Against standard interpretations of Rousseau according to which he holds the view that humans are naturally self-sufficient, asocial beings, necessarily corrupted by societies, I argue that Rousseau holds the view that human beings are naturally social. This paper shows that "The Second Discourse" contains an argument that we can only account for basic human characteristics – such as language and reason – if we understand humans in this way, as inevitably social beings. It is true that Rousseau criticizes societies for being corrupt. But that should not be taken as a criticism of all societies. Only some societies are corrupt: those in which humans’ nature as free persons cannot develop. The asocial human being of Rousseau’s natural state is a theoretical device in a reductio argument that Rousseau aims at the Hobbesian view. A society’s corruption is not a function of its artificiality, of its departure from an asocial state of nature, but of its departure from a natural, uncorrupted society. This is a society that provides conditions in which humans’ nature as free persons can develop, such as the legitimate society of The Social Contract. This has the implication that Rousseau’s theory of freedom has an Aristotelian rather than a Kantian foundation.
This article identifies current understandings of marriage as creating a union between the breadw... more This article identifies current understandings of marriage as creating a union between the breadwinner husband and his homemaker wife as responsible for marriage’s implication in both gender subordination and heteronormativity. In order to challenge both of these forms of oppression, I argue, the public meaning of marriage should be reformed to be understood as commitment. Thus understood, marriage would become open to a wide variety of relationships, and the association between marriage and women’s role as caretaker would be weakened.
This article draws attention to a form of injustice in intimate relationships of care that is lar... more This article draws attention to a form of injustice in intimate relationships of care that is largely ignored in discussions about the legal rights and obligations of intimate partners. This form of injustice is experienced by intimate caregivers and, I argue, is connected to a feature of caregiving I call “flexibility,” which requires “skills of flexibility” to produce. I argue that the demands placed by these skills on caregivers create constraints that amount to “vulnerability to oppression.” To lift these constraints, caregivers are entitled to open-ended responses to their work, responses that would enable them to pursue their own projects while providing care. Marriage law reform should be guided by the aim to undermine this vulnerability to oppression. I take issue with Fineman and Brake’s marriage reform proposals for protecting choice and thus failing to protect caregivers from this vulnerability.
Books by Mara Marin
Connected by Commitment argues that our obligations to transform structural oppression are obliga... more Connected by Commitment argues that our obligations to transform structural oppression are obligations of “commitment.” Commitments are relationships of obligation developed over time through the accumulated effect of open-ended actions and responses. The book examines three spheres (legal relations, intimate relations of care, and work relations) and argues that in each of them oppressive relations are maintained by processes that make a mutual vulnerability invisible and in so doing are able to place it disproportionately on disadvantaged social groups. The notion of commitment is essential to making sense of these processes and thus for offering a model of solidarity against multiple forms of oppression.
Longer AbstractConnected by Commitment is an examination of our obligations to transform structural oppression and argues that they should be understood as “commitments.” Commitments are relationships of obligation developed over time through the accumulated effect of open-ended actions and responses. The concept of commitment highlights the way that agents incur obligations via their voluntary actions but without knowing in advance the precise content of their obligations. In structural contexts, “commitment” highlights the fact that we incur obligations to dismantle unjust social structures in virtue of our participation in them over time, i.e. in virtue of the cumulative effects of our actions, irrespective of our intentions. The book offers an analysis of social relations as a form of commitment by analyzing three sorts of social relations vulnerable to oppression: political-legal relations, intimate relations of care, and labor relations. It argues that understanding legal relations as commitments makes visible the continuous labor of compliance required by the law from those it governs. This view of legal relations highlights both the unequal burdens the law puts on different social groups and the possibilities of resistance intrinsic to the enforcement function of the law. Understanding care relations on the model of commitment makes visible caregiving’s “flexibility,” the feature of caregiving made invisible by the processes that create oppressive hierarchies between caregivers and receivers of care. Finally, understanding labor relations as commitments makes visible the processes through which the labor of women and racialized bodies are devalued, the processes that are implicated in sustaining the hierarchical division between high-skilled and low-skilled labor, a division that contributes to increased rates of capitalist accumulation and social inequality.
Book Reviews by Mara Marin
s new book is motivated by a familiar yet enduring problem in feminist theory: that of the biases... more s new book is motivated by a familiar yet enduring problem in feminist theory: that of the biases of privilege. The problem is that feminist theorists, while claiming to speak on behalf of all women, are prevented to do so by their privileged position that limits their understanding of the experience of marginal women. While this problem is endemic to philosophy more generally, it is particularly embarrassing for feminist philosophers, who position themselves as critics of privilege and of its biases. In spite of these claims, Welch posits, feminist theorists continue to be restricted by their own racial and class privilege.
Over the last two decades the institution of marriage has become the subject of a growing field o... more Over the last two decades the institution of marriage has become the subject of a growing field of theoretical inquiry. Partly motivated by the social and legal debates around same-sex marriage, this field came also to address philosophical issues such as the nature of families, the social importance of caregiving, or the reasons for the state interest in intimate relationships. After Marriage advances this discussion with nine original essays by authors who have already contributed to debates in this field.
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Papers by Mara Marin
Books by Mara Marin
Longer AbstractConnected by Commitment is an examination of our obligations to transform structural oppression and argues that they should be understood as “commitments.” Commitments are relationships of obligation developed over time through the accumulated effect of open-ended actions and responses. The concept of commitment highlights the way that agents incur obligations via their voluntary actions but without knowing in advance the precise content of their obligations. In structural contexts, “commitment” highlights the fact that we incur obligations to dismantle unjust social structures in virtue of our participation in them over time, i.e. in virtue of the cumulative effects of our actions, irrespective of our intentions. The book offers an analysis of social relations as a form of commitment by analyzing three sorts of social relations vulnerable to oppression: political-legal relations, intimate relations of care, and labor relations. It argues that understanding legal relations as commitments makes visible the continuous labor of compliance required by the law from those it governs. This view of legal relations highlights both the unequal burdens the law puts on different social groups and the possibilities of resistance intrinsic to the enforcement function of the law. Understanding care relations on the model of commitment makes visible caregiving’s “flexibility,” the feature of caregiving made invisible by the processes that create oppressive hierarchies between caregivers and receivers of care. Finally, understanding labor relations as commitments makes visible the processes through which the labor of women and racialized bodies are devalued, the processes that are implicated in sustaining the hierarchical division between high-skilled and low-skilled labor, a division that contributes to increased rates of capitalist accumulation and social inequality.
Book Reviews by Mara Marin
Longer AbstractConnected by Commitment is an examination of our obligations to transform structural oppression and argues that they should be understood as “commitments.” Commitments are relationships of obligation developed over time through the accumulated effect of open-ended actions and responses. The concept of commitment highlights the way that agents incur obligations via their voluntary actions but without knowing in advance the precise content of their obligations. In structural contexts, “commitment” highlights the fact that we incur obligations to dismantle unjust social structures in virtue of our participation in them over time, i.e. in virtue of the cumulative effects of our actions, irrespective of our intentions. The book offers an analysis of social relations as a form of commitment by analyzing three sorts of social relations vulnerable to oppression: political-legal relations, intimate relations of care, and labor relations. It argues that understanding legal relations as commitments makes visible the continuous labor of compliance required by the law from those it governs. This view of legal relations highlights both the unequal burdens the law puts on different social groups and the possibilities of resistance intrinsic to the enforcement function of the law. Understanding care relations on the model of commitment makes visible caregiving’s “flexibility,” the feature of caregiving made invisible by the processes that create oppressive hierarchies between caregivers and receivers of care. Finally, understanding labor relations as commitments makes visible the processes through which the labor of women and racialized bodies are devalued, the processes that are implicated in sustaining the hierarchical division between high-skilled and low-skilled labor, a division that contributes to increased rates of capitalist accumulation and social inequality.