Subjectivity, Gender and the Struggle for Recognition

Subjectivity, Gender and the Struggle for Recognition examines the significance of 'recognition' for contemporary philosophy and political theory. It reveals the role played by recognition in the construction of our individual and collective identities through an exploration of European philosophy and feminist theory, incorporating thinkers ranging from Hegel and Heidegger to Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Focusing on gender, it highlights how interpersonal and institutional forms of recognition are influenced by power and discourse, and considers the impact this has on our capacity to shape our gender identities. Arguing for an ambivalent account of recognition based upon a post-structuralist theory of the subject, it challenges contemporary recognition theorists such as Charles Taylor and Axel Honneth for failing to acknowledge the extent to which recognition can regulate and normalise behaviour. This book insightfully charts both the importance and challenges of making sense of oneself as a socially-recognisable being.

Paddy McQueen is a Research Fellow at Queen's University, Belfast, where he also obtained his PhD. His primary research explores issues of subjectivity, gender, agency and power in philosophy and political theory. He is the co-author of Key Concepts in Philosophy (Palgrave, 2010).

Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Importance of Recognition
3. The Subject in Philosophy and Politics
4. The Philosophy and Politics of Recognition
5. Feminism and the Politics of Gender
6. The Overall Structure and Arguments of the Book
PART I: THE POLITICS OF RECOGNITION
7. Defining Recognition
8. Charles Taylor and the Politics of Recognition
9. Axel Honneth and the Struggle for Recognition
10. The Recognition-Redistribution Debate
11. The Deficit Model of Recognition: Some Initial Concerns
PART II: THE IMPORTANCE OF HEGELIAN RECOGNITION
12. The Cartesian Subject and Authoritative Self-Knowledge
13. Kant, Fichte and the Turn Toward Recognition
14. Hegel: Self-Certainty, Freedom and Recognition
15. Interpretating the Master-Slave Dialectic: Inescapable Conflict or Mutual Authorisation?
16. How Other is the Other? Lévinas and the Limtis of Recognition
PART III: SITUATING THE SUBJECT: IDENTITY, POWER AND RECOGNITION
17. Hegel and Arendt on Interpreting Identity
18. Becoming as Perpetual Over-Coming? The Nietzschean Critique of the Subject
19. Subject to Recognition: Power, Identity and Agency
20. Reimagining the Subject: Feminist Figurations of the Self
PART IV: 'AIN'T I A WOMAN?' FEMINIST THEORY AND THE POLITICS OF RECOGNITION
21. Recognition in Consciousness-Raising and Radical Feminisms
22. Breaking the Universalist Paradigm: The Development of a Standpoint
23. Recognition, Experience and Solidarity
24. Rethinking Gender: Judith Butler's Politics of the Performative
25. Butler on Recognition and Power
PART V: RECOGNITION TRANSGENDER IDENTITIES: NARRATIVES AND POLITICS OF THE GENDERED SELF
26. The Meaning and Importance of Transgender Identities
27. Transsexual Controversies
28. Diagnosing Transsexuality
29. Re-Reading Transsexuality: Sites of Power, Performativity and Recognition
30. The Recognition and Erasure of Deviant Gender Identities
31. Legal Recognition and the Regulation of Identity
PART VI: RECOGNITION, QUEER POLITICS AND A LIVEABLE LIFE
32. The Meaning of a Liveable Life
33. Recognising and Working on Oneself
34. Recognition and the Politics of 'Coming Out'
35. Recognition, Gender and Queer Politics