Hyper-agency as the new norm of social recognition: notes on the neoliberal regime of recognition

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the normative effects of neoliberalism on the social processes of recognition, or what we might call the ‘neoliberal regime of recognition’. The hypothesis defended here is that this new regime of recognition tends to make the norm of the ‘hyper-agency’ of the ‘hyper-subject’ the ideal norm to which one must conform in order to be socially recognised. As a result, there is a tendency to misrecognise and instrumentalise the radical vulnerability that underpins human beings’ vital need for recognition.