Abstract
The distinguished political scientist Robert Putnam found that increased diversity was associated, except in the case of political activity, with the decline of social capital. I propose that it was not diversity, as such, that led to this decline, but the identity politics associated with it. This politics is discussed in terms of the anti-Oedipal dynamics of political correctness and the normalization of the pristine self. The development of social capital depends on common understandings and mutual assumptions, which are felt as antagonistic to the pristine self. This idea is elaborated through an analysis of the concept of microaggression.
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Schwartz, H.S. (2016). Putnam’s Paradox: Diversity, Destruction of Community, and Anti-Oedipal Psychology. In: Political Correctness and the Destruction of Social Order. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39805-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39805-1_3
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