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Introduction to special issue: Feminist manifestos and global constitutionalism

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Ruth HoughtonORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press. Feminists and women activists use manifestos to express their frustrations with legal and political systems, expose the harms suffered in their lived experiences under patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism, and call for radical political, legal and social change. This special issue on feminist manifestos and global constitutionalism considers the role of feminist manifestos in global constitutionalism. It interrogates the role of feminist manifestos in bringing about legal and political reform, their role as historical texts and sources of global constitutionalization, and their limitations as tools that are potentially both exclusionary and de-political. In their article, Ruth Houghton and Aoife O'Donoghue outline a role for feminist manifestos within feminist approaches to constituent power. Sheri Labenski uncovers from the archives the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom manifesto from 1924 and the outline for a 'New International Order'. Gina Heathcote and Lucia Kula centre Lusophone African feminist action in Luanda, Angola, to problematize an approach to feminist manifestos that reiterates dominant feminisms, and instead argue for active silence by those more dominant feminist voices. In her conclusion to the special issue, Emily Jones uses posthuman feminism to interrogate and critique the claim of universality in global constitutionalism. Across this special issue, key themes emerge: the potential of inclusion and exclusion, and the role of manifesto as a method in knowledge production.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Houghton R, O'Donoghue A

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Global Constitutionalism

Year: 2023

Volume: 12

Issue: 3

Pages: 403-411

Print publication date: 01/11/2023

Online publication date: 25/08/2023

Acceptance date: 02/04/2018

Date deposited: 28/09/2023

ISSN (print): 2045-3817

ISSN (electronic): 2045-3825

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045381723000217

DOI: 10.1017/S2045381723000217


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