Recognition as statecraft?
contexts of recognition and transformations of state membership regimes
pp. 173-191
in: Nicholas Smith (ed), Recognition theory as social research, Berlin, Springer, 2012Abstract
This chapter addresses the salience of a theory of recognition such as Axel Honneth's for phenomena that problematize the state-society nexus that is characteristic of modern social and political philosophy, including the tradition of Critical Theory. More specifically in focusing on empirical and normative aspects of the changing membership regimes of states in contexts of migrant transnationalism, I want to ask what resources Honneth's theory of recognition offer for reflecting on this phenomenon and what critical issues such reflection raises for Honneth's theory. In the opening section I illustrate a tension within Honneth's work between (what I will distinguish as) his social theory of recognition and his societal interpretation of this theory in order to underscore the point that Honneth's elaboration of his theory assumes the coincidence of state and society (Section 1). I will then lay out the phenomenon to be addressed (Section 2) before examining what resources Honneth's theory offers for reflecting on issues of transnational migration (Section 3) and what implications this phenomenon may have for Honneth's theory.
