Winner of the 1998 American Political Science Association Victoria Schuck Award
Dislocating Cultures takes aim at the related notions of nation, identity, and tradition to show how Western
and Third World scholars have misrepresented Third World cultures and feminist agendas. Drawing attention to the
political forces that have spawned, shaped, and perpetuated these misrepresentations since colonial times, Uma
Narayan inspects the underlying problems which "culture" poses for the respect of difference and cross-cultural
understanding.
Questioning the problematic roles assigned to Third World subjects within multiculturalism, Narayan examines ways
in which the flow of information across national contexts affects our understanding of issues. Dislocating Cultures
contributes a philosophical perspective on areas of ongoing interest such as nationalism, post-colonial studies,
and the cultural politics of debates over tradition and "westernization" in Third World contexts.