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Paper short abstract:

In this paper I introduce a theory of recognition as way of theorizing a subject's becoming. I focus on how a theory of recognition can be useful for understanding one of the mainstays of social injustice in the U.S., namely, educational inequity.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I introduce a theory of recognition as way of theorizing the process of becoming. I take recognition to be a psychosocial phenomena by which a subject is recognized as a particular type of person. In contrast to previous theories of recognition that assume recognition is a presuppositional matter in which the always-already-there subject is either accurately recognized or not, I develop a theory of recognition as a process with creative potential such that recognition can enable the becoming of the subject being recognized. This moment of recognition is mediated by 1) the available array of available macrosociological identities and types (broadly construed to include identities proper as well as psychological states and traits), what I will refer to as regimes of recognition and 2) the complex semiotics which are locally realized in interactional, institutional, and sociocultural practices and through which it is communicated, often unwittingly, the answer to the question “Who do you think I am?”. The proposed theory of recognition has consequences for understanding such classical anthropological concerns as gift-giving, initiation rituals, and bridwealth. In this paper I focus on how recognition can be useful for understanding one of the mainstays of social injustice in the U.S., namely, educational inequity. I argue that the weight of recognition hangs unevenly on people across various categories of identity by enabling certain affordances for action and thus for becoming.