Mapping connections : postcolonial, feminist and legal theory

Introduction to special issue of collected papers from symposium \u27Mapping Law at the Margins\u27, Brisbane, December 2004 - covering operation of the law at the intersections of race, class and gender from colonial times to the present through the lens of postcolonial theory. This Special Issue of the Australian Feminist Law journal collects papers largely from the second Symposium \u27Mapping Law at the Margins\u27 Brisbane, December 2004, organized to make visible the operation of the law at the intersections of race, class and gender from colonial times to the present through the lenses of postcolonial theory. Practices of map drawing were integral to processes of colonization, and feminists, critical theorists and others have used the metaphors of mapping and topographies in attempts to convey the complexities of shifting, intersecting, multidimensional individual, communal and national identities. Postcolonial theory provides lenses for analyses of the \u27raced\u27 and gendered dynamics of colonial imperialism, and for analyses of the shapes, limits, and potentials for currently emerging multidimensional identities at all three of these levels. An emphasis on praxis requires us to consider the politics of our theorizing. In this paper we explore the interconnection of these ideas and their expression in the articles collected in this special issue of the Australian Feminist Law journal