Introduction

Abstract

In recent years, the notion of recognition has gained a central position in debates about multiculturalism, identity politics, problems of rights and justice, and the struggles of groups facing poor income distribution and cultural undervaluation. Axel Honneth’s book, The Struggle for Recognition, which was published in Germany in 1992 and translated into English in 1995, generated a wide range of inquiries and investigations in diverse domains in the philosophical, social and political fields.¹ Several scholars have argued that Honneth’s theory could revitalize the Frankfurt School tradition by bringing new insights into the assessment and analysis of contemporary society. While Honneth endorses Habermas’s linguistic turn and the substitution of the subject–object model of cognition and action for an intersubjective model, he attempts to ground his critique in experiences of misrecognition as the normative and motivational force behind struggles against injustice. Honneth seeks to broaden the scope of social criticism by evincing social conditions that are necessary for humans to flourish and reach the social recognition of individual needs, rights, and contributions for a society.