Recognition Through Human Rights

Abstract

The category of “Recognition”, as intersubjective dimension of social interaction, seems to have application in the microsociological field only. Here it has both cognitive and pragmatic meaning. From the cognitive standpoint “recognition” refers to the ability to identify an object.1 At a pragmatic level it concerns individuals’ expectation to have their own values recognized by others.2 In the public space the intersubjective dimension of recognition makes the idea of equality among people problematic, to the extent it claims respect for difference. Quoting Amartya Sen about the relationship between social justice and citizenship, today we are dealing with the questions “Equality of what?” and “Recognition of what?”.3 In the current debate about citizenship, we find an increasing effort to elaborate a normative and prescriptive ideal, able to satisfy claims both of redistribution and recognition.4 In my opinion it is crucial to reintegrate the theory of recognition within the political-public sphere of European citizenship, as a civic space in which the dynamic of confrontation among different cultural perspectives takes place and new subjects claim the full recognition of their identity.