Recognition

A tension between the desire to be respected as an equal and the desire to distinguish oneself as a unique person lies at the heart of the modern social order. Everyone cares about recognition: no one wants to be treated with disrespect, insulted, humiliated, or simply ignored. This basic motivation drives the ‘politics of recognition’ which we see in those struggles for inclusion and equality in relation to gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality and which seek to affirm the public value of these particular identities. In this compelling new book Cillian McBride argues that the notion of recognition is not merely confined to these struggles, but has a long history, from an…