Redistribution or Recognition?: A Political-Philosophical Exchange
'Recognition' has become a keyword of our time, but its relation to economic 'redistribution' remains unclear. This volume stages a debate between two philosophers, one North American, the other German, who hold different views of the relation of redistribution to recognition. Axel Honneth conceives recognition as the fundamental, over-arching moral category, potentially encompassing redistribution, while Nancy Fraser argues that the two categories are both fundamental and mutually irreducible. In alternating chapters the authors respond to each other's criticisms, and offer a lively dialogue on identity politics, capitalism and social justice. The volume is a dramatic riposte to those who proclaim the death of 'grand theory.'
Paperback, 280 pages
ISBN: 9781859844922
January 2004
$24.95 / £16.99
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Other Editions
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Hardback, 280 pages
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ISBN: 9781859846483
January 2004
$60.00 / £40.00
Reviews
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A carefully wrought and provocative debate between philosophers with strong commitments to asking what a more just social life might be. This text will doubtless produce a spate of new and important scholarship in critical theory in its wake.
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In this exciting dialogue, Nancy Fraser and Alex Honneth do not simply explore with perfect conceptual rigor the analogies and tensions of the paradigms of 'equal distributrion' and 'struggle for recognition.' They also demonstrate why engaged theory matters for collective practice. Their speculative effort will set the agenda for transnational debates of vital importance.
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In this fascinating volume, two of the major theorists of our time battle it out over the question of redistribution versus recognition. The stakes are high: how might a critical theory of capitalist society be revivified in a manner that unites philosophy, politics, and social theory. This is engaged theoretical debate of the highest level.
Blog
New Left Review — new issue out now
The March/April issue of New Left Review is now on sale featuring the following essays:
T.J. Clark: For a Left with No Future
An epistle to capitalism's immobilized opponents from the author of Farewell to an Idea. Drawing on sources from Bruegel to Nietzsche, Hazlitt to Benjamin, T. J. Clark supplies notes for a rethinking of left politics that would recognize the impasses of the present and the horrific legacies of the past, while abandoning the mirages of futurity.
Susan Watkins: Presentism?
Responding to Clark, Susan Watkins questions the adequacy of a perspective built upon man's propensity for violence, and defends a historicized politics of social transformation against the cramped horizon of the present.
Discussions
Begin a discussionOther books by Nancy Fraser, and Axel Honneth
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Adding Insult to Injury
by Nancy Fraser
A controversial look at the social politics of equality and cultural politics of difference.