Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Clifton Mark
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Axel Honneth ◽  
Social Esteem ◽  
Struggle For Recognition

Axel Honneth’s The Struggle for Recognition develops an empirically anchored theory of social conflict based on Hegel’s theory of recognition. In this book, he argues for an intersubjective view of identity and a moral interpretation of social conflict. According to Honneth, social struggles may be normatively evaluated by the extent to which they provide the preconditions for self-realization in the form of three distinct types of recognition: love, respect, and social esteem. Honneth’s normative ideal aims to occupy a middle ground between overly abstract Kantian theories and potentially parochial communitarian theories. Although the book has been subject to a variety of criticisms, it provides the most systematic and ambitious social theory of recognition available today.

scholarly journals Economy, Culture, and Normativity: The Debate Regarding Social Theory between Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Nathalie De Almeida Bressiani
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Axel Honneth ◽  
Nancy Fraser

Axel Honneth recorre a uma teoria do reconhecimento, segundo a qual o desenvolvimento do capitalismo e das instituições sociais é o resultado de processos de comunicação nos quais conflitos sociais são determinantes. Nancy Fraser, por sua vez, desenvolve um modelo teórico dual, de acordo com o qual a desigualdade econômica tem parte de suas origens em mecanismos sistêmicos, cujo funcionamento seria relativamente independente de normas e conflitos sociais. Embora ambos vinculem os conflitos sociais a normas sociais, somente Honneth busca atrelar o próprio funcionamento da economia aos desenvolvimentos desses mesmos conflitos. Tendo isso em vista, este artigo tem como objetivo explicitar em Fraser e Honneth, a relação que se estabelece entre confl itos sociais e a economia, com vistas a entender neles a influência de normas sociais no processo de reprodução material da sociedade

scholarly journals Between Ideology and Utopia: Honneth and Ricoeur on Symbolic Violence, Marginalization and Recognition

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Moyaert
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Symbolic Order ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Axel Honneth ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Cultural Minorities ◽  
Struggle For Recognition ◽  
Vital Resource

This article focuses on multiculturalism in the context of present-day societies and the need to incorporate minorities within a reframed social order. In his critical theory, Axel Honneth rightly draws attention to the idea of the moral grammar of struggles for recognition.  Analyzing his theory in depth, the article shows that Honneth underestimates the violent power of ideological discourse in marginalizing and excluding society’s others, e.g. cultural minorities. It then puts forward an alternative approach based on Ricœur’s creative and original reflections on ideology and utopia. For the incorporation of cultural minorities to occur, the symbolic order of society needs to be critiqued, transformed and expanded. From this perspective, the author highlights the subversive and transformative strength of utopian counter-narratives. The latter form a vital resource for cultural minorities in their struggle for recognition.

scholarly journals Love, rights and solidarity: Studying children’s participation using Honneth’s theory of recognition

Childhood ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
Struggle For Recognition

Recent attempts to theorize children’s participation have drawn on a wide range of ideas, concepts and models from political and social theory. The aim of this article is to explore the specific usefulness of Honneth’s theory of a ‘struggle for recognition’ in thinking about this area of practice. The article identifies what is distinctive about Honneth’s theory of recognition, and how it differs from other theories of recognition. It then considers the relevance of Honneth’s conceptual framework to the social position of children, including those who may be involved in a variety of ‘participatory’ activities. It looks at how useful Honneth’s ideas are in direct engagement with young people’s praxis, drawing on ethnographic research with members of a children and young people’s forum. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of this theoretical approach and the further questions which it opens up for theories of participation and of adult–child relations more generally.

scholarly journals Outline of Mimesis, Honor and Dignity in Modern Sport: A Commentary

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Ejgil Jespersen
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Axel Honneth ◽  
Social Philosopher ◽  
Group Hierarchy ◽  
Struggle For Recognition ◽  
The Way

AbstractWhen reading the masterpiece about “The Agon Motif” by John W. Loy and W. Robert Morford (2019), I was struck by their recurrent reference to the pursuit of honor in agonal sport contests, as it has become common sense to replace honor with dignity in modernity. I take the German social-philosopher Axel Honneth (1995) as a prime example of spelling out the replacement of honor with dignity in what he names “the struggle for recognition”. In a historical perspective, however, it looks like, that dignity can be understood as a distribution of honor rather than as an oppositional concept of honor. Recognition should not only be conceptualized at the categorical level, but also understood in terms of ‘comparative recognition’, which sorts members of a group into an intra-group hierarchy based on their relative merits and, thereby, pave the way for self-esteem (Mark, 2014). Furthermore, Honneth (2008) develops his concept of recognition to a two-level one by including a primordial recognition in terms of mimesis based upon his former concept of basic self-confidence. It is a kind of elementary responsiveness, which always and necessarily contains an element of involuntary openness or devotedness in the bodily-affective sphere. Therefore, I suggest taking mimesis as the precondition of honor into account and understanding dignity as a distribution of honor in the institution of modern sport.

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