DEALING WITH DIFFERENCE - THE RECURSIVE AND THE NEW

In recent years theories of difference have become increasingly comple x as they have shifted away from unitary, essentialist constructions o f 'race' and ethnicity. The resulting conceptualizations of 'race' and ethnicity - as dynamic and multiple - provide new perspectives on dif ference, identities, subjectivities and power relations. This article argues that concepts of racialized and ethnicized difference have been taken up or resisted in diverse ways in academia, within feminisms an d by some groups. Some of these have reproduced old, unitary notions o f racialized hierarchy, while others have helped to disrupt racism. Al though some recurrent notions of difference are problematic in continu ally treating difference as free Boating and abstracted from power rel ations, many new conceptions incorporate older ideas. The article argu es that there is no simple good/bad duality between the recurrent and the new.