Introduction. Perspectives on Nancy Fraser’s Thought: Philosophy, Feminism, Capitalism, and the Climate Crisis

Nancy Fraser is one of the most important intellectuals of our time. Philosopher, critical theorist of society, feminist theorist and activist: with her influential work from the 1980s until today Fraser has offered significant contributions in the fields of social and political theory, feminist theory, contemporary philosophy, and lately in the debates around the relation between climate change and capitalism. On the occasion of Fraser’s 75th birthday in 2022, and on that of the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the publication of two of her books in 2023 – respectively, Fortunes of Feminism (2013) and Redistribution or Recognition? (2003, co-authored with Axel Honneth) –, the monographic section of the present issue of “Scenari” aims to celebrate these anniversaries with selected contributions dedicated to the investigation of her work and thought. The contributions of our monographic issue let the disruptive potential of Fraser’s social, economic and political theory emerge, together with her capacity to unveil injustice and the hidden preconditions of a capitalist society. This is an approach and an impulse that mutatis mutandis has always been at the core of the philosophical and sociological tradition that, from Horkheimer and Adorno until today, we have all known as critical theory: a tradition to which also Nancy Fraser’s work coherently belongs and which Fraser has meritoriously enriched and further developed throughout her long career in original, stimulating and noteworthy ways, thus deserving to be celebrated as one of the philosophical masters of our time.