What Should Be the Objective of an Emancipatory Project?

Abstract

This article covers a very central issue in the discussions of the implications of exploitation for the health, quality of life, and well-being of populations. Essentially, the objective of any emancipatory project should be the elimination of any form of exploitation, whether of class, gender, race, nation, or the environment. This article explores the interrelatedness between different types of exploitation and demonstrates how all forms of exploitation are impacted by the political context within which they exist. It compares the levels of class and gender exploitation (as well as environmental exploitation) in countries governed by different political traditions, underlining the enormous importance this political context has in shaping not only each form of exploitation but how they are related. The article concludes that those countries which have an ideological project that connects all these different projects of liberation have less exploitation of each type of discrimination.