On seagulls, hedgehogs, and foxes: Representation, reconstruction, and the challenge of getting from here to there

Abstract

The common bond linking feminist theories of identity politics and process ontologies is that, while differing in their ontological presuppositions, both are modes of representation of an external reality, asserting an unverifiable correspondence between our mental representations and an antecedent, external reality. To escape the quagmire of representationalism, Ihnji Jon turns to transitionalist pragmatism in a radical move that redirects attention from intellectual debates between contending theorists to charting a route to practical reconstruction. Jon's pragmatist turn transcends enduring dualisms that have hampered knowledge production since the Greeks while posing daunting challenges to the purpose and process of political practice and social inquiry.