Vulnerable recognition: recovering Hegelian agonism

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, I argue that a conception of vulnerable recognition addresses both the shortcomings of conventional understandings of recognition and Patchen Markell’s provocative critique (and abandonment) of recognition theory in Bound by Recognition. First, I outline Markell’s critique of conventional recognition theory and his call for the politics of recognition to be replaced by a politics of acknowledgement that turns toward the self and welcomes contingency. Second, I propose a reframing of recognition as vulnerable in response to conventional recognition theory’s limitations. This more agonistic conception of recognition recaptures the dynamism of Hegelian recognition that has been lost in recent decades. It draws attention to the desires, structures, and practices that underpin misrecognition and calls for an embrace of vulnerability, ambiguity, and political risk.