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18 Res Publica 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/respub18 and id is 1 raw text is: Res Publica (2012) 18:1-9
DOI 10.1007/s11158-012-9181-7
Theory and Practice in the Politics of Recognition
and Misrecognition
Wendy Martineau - Nasar Meer - Simon Thompson
Published online: 7 February 2012
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
In recent years, the idea of the politics of recognition has become an increasingly
popular way of thinking about a wide range of political phenomena, from the logic
of social struggles to the nature of social justice. While the provenance of the idea
of recognition in social and political theory may be traced to a number of
intellectual traditions (Laegaard 2005), the two most prominent contemporary
proponents arguably begin their dialogues with the same source (Toppinen 2005).
Charles Taylor's essay on 'The Politics of Recognition' (1994) and Axel Honneth's
book Kampf um Anerkennung (1992), both widely regarded as landmark texts on the
topic, spend some time engaging with-both appropriating and departing from-
Hegel's philosophical system.
Taylor opens his account by highlighting the way in which contemporary politics
has become significantly shaped by the need or demand for recognition made by
oppressed or marginalized individuals and groups. He draws on Hegel and
Rousseau, amongst others, to give a philosophical and historical account of how the
concept of recognition has come to have this wide-ranging resonance, arguing that
recognition is not just a courtesy we owe people, but 'a vital human need' (1994,
p. 26), one crucial to our ability to become full human agents. This claim stems
from the account of the fundamentally dialogical character of human identity which
W. Martineau
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, 34 Tyndalls Park
Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1TY, UK
e-mail: wendymartineau@hotmail.co.uk
N. Meer
School of Arts and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Lipman Building, Newcastle upon
Tyne NEl 8ST, UK
e-mail: Nasar.Meer@northumbria.ac.uk
S. Thompson (E)
Department of Arts, University of the West of England, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
e-mail: Simon.Thompson@uwe.ac.uk

I Springer

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