Revolutionary Recognition

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Revolutionary Recognition represents a major contribution to contemporary political theory. It argues that human emancipation is only possible in a society characterised by 'mutual recognition'. In present-day political theory, the term 'recognition' has become popular and widely discussed, but has become synonymous with reformist scenarios, such as social democratic politics and the politics of identity. Richard Gunn and Adrian Wilding undertake a comprehensive critique of existing understandings of recognition, particularly those of Axel Honneth and Charles Taylor, returning recognition to its original meaning in the work of Hegel and Marx, and showing how mutual recognition has revolutionary rather than merely reformist implications. Gunns and Wildings work is unapologetically political and introduces a new principle 'mutual recognition' around which radical politics can organise. This book is a ground-breaking contribution to left wing theory and is relevant as both a scholarly text and a rallying cry to the Left.

Reviews

The clarity of purpose of the authors is one of the most admirable qualities of this work, and amidst a diversity of engagements with philosophical traditions the reader is never unclear as to how it all fits together. * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *
I cannot think of any work in/on critical social theory published in recent years where the contribution is as provocative and as well argued - or as convincing - as in Gunns and Wildings superb scholarly account of recognition as a concept of revolutionary thought and practice. * Werner Bonefeld, Professor of Politics, University of York, UK *
Gunn and Wilding return to young Hegel and to Marx, and through a stimulating critique of recent uses of the concept, they surprise us with a new revolutionary treatment of recognition that challenges old and new prejudices about the concept. Written in a superb, engaging and clear style, Revolutionary Recognition will be published at the right time, when the creation of a we is the most important task of the anti-capitalist movement. Read this book! * Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Reader in Sociology, University of Bath, UK *
In the end it all comes down to mutual recognition and to commoning as the mode of production of mutual recognition. That is the key, the bottom line for a new world that is open to plurality and self-determination and closed to domination, exploitation and biocide. Gunns and Wildings book names the kernel from which another world can flourish, it encourages us to look at the blind spot of Orthodox Marxism, and it propels us to think, act and relate as an association of free producers: precisely, a Revolutionary Recognition! * Massimo De Angelis, Professor of Political Economy and Social Change, University of East London, UK *
The demand for mutual recognition can seem a somewhat conservative view: a call to take me as you find me. Gunn and Wilding seek to rescue its revolutionary potential in Hegel and Marx, and apply it to the radical political movements of the present. Challenging what they see as the reformist accounts of Taylor and Honneth, they contend that the struggle for mutual recognition lies at the heart of transformative collective social and political action. For it can only be achieved through a revolutionary overturning of the hierarchies and possessive individualism inherent to the prevailing political and economic system and the mutual construction of a form of community and economy in which the freedom of each is the condition for the freedom of all. * Richard Bellamy, Professor of Political Science, University College London, UK *
Gunn and Wildings book conveys the revolutionary power of dangerous ideas; specifically, Hegels concept of mutual recognition and how it was used by Marx to underpin his theory of property, class and communism. Gunn and Wilding show how Hegel and Marxs dangerous ideas are actualised in more recent events, like Occupy, the Arab Spring, the movement for climate justice and other forms of participatory democracy. Gunn and Wilding favour the commons and commoning as direct types of revolutionary recognition now and in the future. Study this book and be enlivened by the spirit of freedom which freedom through others brings. * Mike Neary, author of 'Student as Producer: how do revolutionary teachers teach' *

Author Bio

Richard Gunn lectured in Political Theory at Edinburgh University, UK, until his retirement in 2011. Adrian Wilding is a Fellow of the Centre for British Studies at the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin, Germany.