Holding Out for Other Ways of Knowing and Being

This was the keynote presentation at the workshop on Diversity and Legal Reasoning held at Queen Mary University of London on 23 November 2016, co-sponsored by the Centre for Research on Law, Equality and Diversity and the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context. Karin van Marle approaches the theme of diversity in legal reasoning from the perspective of epistemology and argues that political and legal institutions should value difference and live with it in a way that amounts to more than mere ‘accommodation’ or adding a list of different differences. Drawing on the work of Achille Mbembe, Judith Butler, Costas Douzinas and Adam Gearey, Albie Sachs, Jacqueline Rose, Adriana Cavarero and Iris Marion Young, she explores ways in which traditional approaches to notions like university, access, space, truth, knowledge, politics and ethics could be challenged at the heart of what they hold dear.