"Recognition and Work," Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Maquarie University, October 15-17, 2007.

A central thesis of Axel Honneth’s influential book, The Struggle for Recognition, is that social conflicts have a moral dimension on account of the struggles for recognition they involve. The idea that particular groups or cultures may be owed recognition, and that states act unjustly when they deny the recognition that is due, has been at the heart of recent debates in political philosophy. The role that recognition might have in other contexts of social conflict has been less widely discussed. On the other hand, there is now a considerable body of sociological, economic and psychological literature to suggest that contexts of work have undergone a profound transformation, bringing with it new potentials for conflict, new expressions of discontent and a veritable ‘transvaluation of values’ traditionally associated with work. What can the theory of recognition tell us about these phenomena? And what implications does work - in its full anthropological and moral significance - have for the structure of theories of recognition? This recent conference brought together philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and economists to explore the complex relations between recognition and work. Visit the conference homepage here: http://www.crsi.mq.edu.au/news_and_events/RecognitionandWork.htm. Audio recordings are now online here: http://www.crsi.mq.edu.au/Recognition/conf2007/audio.html.