Ambivalent Recognition

Ambivalent Recognition is an impressive first book by Kristina Lepold, one the most exciting voices of a new generation of critical theorists. She argues, convincingly, that we should see recognition—usually thought of as something positive—as ambivalent, for it can makes us complicit in problematic social arrangements. -- Sally Haslanger, author of Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique
There is nothing more productive for a theory than to examine it so incisively that all its internal problems and difficulties come to the surface. Kristina Lepold confronts recognition with its critics, who emphasize that a positive attribution of recognition to a person or group comes at the price of inclusion in an existing order of domination. A masterful study of the negative consequence of perpetuating social oppression. -- Axel Honneth, coauthor of Redistribution or Recognition?:A Political–Philosophical Exchange
There are two seemingly irreconcilable views of recognition. According to the French tradition, recognition is always subjecting, while authors such as Charles Taylor and Axel Honneth have emphasized its ethical potential. Kristina Lepold’s fascinating book rejects this seemingly binary choice and demonstrates how recognition can be both subjecting and ethically significant. The book is a must-read for everyone interested in contemporary critical theory. -- Rahel Jaeggi, author of Critique of Forms of Life
Feminists and multicultural theorists often argue that oppressed people have to misrepresent their interests—and their selves—in order to be politically legible. Lepold’s important book sheds new light on what is normatively at stake in claims that the oppressed and marginalized are misrecognized and is a must-read for all recognition theorists. -- Serene Khader, author of Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop
Kristina Lepold’s Ambivalent Recognition makes an original and important contribution to our understanding of the social dimensions of recognition, and the ways in which our recognition of ourselves and others are often caught up in, and contribute to, a web of oppressive practices. -- Charlotte Witt, author of Social Goodness: The Ontology of Social Norms