Introduction: the contemporary reconfiguring of social theory and cultural politics; Part I. Resisting Difference: The Malaise of the Human Sciences: 1. The political unconscious of the human sciences; 2. The end of sociological theory; 3. Relativizing sociology: the challenge of cultural studies; 4. The refusal of sexual difference: queering sociology; 5. Difference troubles: the flight of sociology from 'otherness'; Part II. Between Identity and Difference: From Lesbian and Gay to Queer Theory: 6. Identity and politics in a 'postmodern' gay culture; 7. Deconstructing queer theory or some difficulties in a theory and politics of difference; Part III. Democratic Prospects: The Politics of Knowledge and Identity: 8. Transfiguring sexual identity: aids and the cultural politics of sexuality and homosexuality; 9. From gay ethnicity to queer politics: the renewal of gay radicalism in the United States; 10. Postmodern anxiety: the politics of epistemology; 11. The politics of sexual difference in late twentieth century America; 12. Difference and democracy: group recognition and the political cultures of the United States, Holland, and France; Epilogue: pragmatism, difference and a culture of strong democracy.