The Ambiguity of Love: Beauvoir, Honneth and Arendt on the Relation Between Recognition, Power and Violence

Gregoratto, Federica

doi:10.1080/14409917.2017.1376933

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Despite a growing IR literature on feelings and emotions, love remains under-investigated in the discipline, both as an ontological object and framework of analysis. 9 In social sciences more broadly, scholars have discussed the ambiguous nature of love, both as a site of power asymmetries (García-Andrade et al, 2018; Gregoratto, 2018) and a mode of resistance and political transformation (Boltanski, 1990; Negri and Hardt, 2005). Research more closely related to my objectives has investigated Paulo Freire’s concept of ‘radical love’ as a strategy to research and teach differently (Douglas and Nganga, 2015; Jolivette, 2015).…”

Section: This Article As a Recursive Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Reflexive discourse analysis: A methodology for the practice of reflexivity

Alejandro

2020

European Journal of International Relations

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How to implement reflexivity in practice? Can the knowledge we produce be emancipatory when our discourses recursively originate in the world we aim to challenge? Critical International Relations (IR) scholars have successfully put reflexivity on the agenda based on the theoretical premise that discourse and knowledge play a socio-political role. However, academics often find themselves at a loss when it comes to implementing reflexivity due to the lack of adapted methodological and pedagogical material. This article shifts reflexivity from meta-reflections on the situatedness of research into a distinctive practice of research and writing that can be learned and taught alongside other research practices. To do so, I develop a methodology based on discourse: reflexive discourse analysis (RDA). Based on the discourse analysis of our own discourse and self-resocialisation, RDA aims to reflexively assess and transform our socio-discursive engagement with the world, so as to render it consistent with our intentional socio-political objectives. RDA builds upon a theoretical framework integrating discourse theory to Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus for reflexivity and practices illustrated in the works of Comte and La Boétie. To illustrate this methodology, I used this very article as a recursive performance. I show how RDA enabled me to identify implicit discriminative mechanisms within my discourse and transform them into an alternative based on love, to produce an article more in line with my socio-political objectives. Overall, this article turns reflexivity into a critical methodology for social change and demonstrates how to integrate criticality methodologically into research and writing.

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Section: This Article As a Recursive Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Reflexive discourse analysis: A methodology for the practice of reflexivity

Alejandro

2020

European Journal of International Relations

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“…34 As shown in detail by Illouz (2012), moreover, men have become more successful in minimizing their vulnerability vis-à-vis women. On power and vulnerability in love relationships, see Gregoratto 2017;2018. 35 Let's have a look, again, at the first part of our introductory line: "If love in society is to represent a better one…" (Adorno 2005, 172): The German word for "represent" is vorstellen, that means both "to depict" and "to introduce" (as e.g.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 34 34 As shown in detail by Illouz (2012), moreover, men have become more successful in minimizing their vulnerability vis‐à‐vis women. On power and vulnerability in love relationships, see Gregoratto 2017; 2018. …”

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confidence: 99%

Love and the (Wrong) World. Adorno and Illouz on an Ambivalent Relation

Gregoratto¹

2020

Journal of Social Philosophy

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According to many social and political theorists, economic rationality has infiltrated almost every aspect of our life on this planet: democratic activities, emotions and intimacy, morality, education, leisure, our internal and external nature. 1 Is there something that can resist and elude the economic logic? Is there something to value in ways that do not contribute to economic evaluation and valorization? One answer that might come to our mind is: love. And in particular, that kind of love that we find difficult to control or steer, that does not have any purpose other than itself and, in Harry Frankfurt's famous formulation, is not determined by reasons other than "reasons of love" (Frankfurt 2004). Is a love of this sort something real, more than an illusion or a fantasy? Can it really escape economy's grip? The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between love and the capitalist society. When I speak of love, I refer here predominantly to forms of intimate, often passionate, erotic bonds between human beings who are not biologically related. 2 For the sake of simplicity, then, we can for now understand capitalism as a socio-natural ensemble of processes dominated directly or indirectly by imperatives aimed at maximizing individual economic profits. 3 How such imperatives work and what they imply in this context will become clearer at a later stage. I am not going to say or imply that erotic love is the only dimension of human (and nonhuman) existence that might contrast capitalism. What I want to suggest, rather, is that an inquiry into love can provide fruitful tools for better understanding critical and transformative practices. At least in the Western modernity, eros has been commonly understood as the form of love most disentangled and free from the rest of society. Social philosophers and sociologists such as Luhmann (1986), Giddens (1993) and Honneth (2014) have largely expounded upon and justified this view by reconstructing the process of differentiation, or "autonomization," of the social sphere of intimate and erotic relationships from other social spheres. According to these theorists, modern individuals fall in love for motives that cannot be convincingly explained by reference to social, economic, cultural and communal norms and values alone.

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“…A third line of criticism centres on a conceptual inadequacy concerning the relation between recognition and power (Allen 2010;Gregoratto 2018;McQueen 2015;Owen 2010;Petherbridge 2013;Young 2007;Zurn 2015). Power tends to be conceptualised differently depending on the theoretical tradition (Angella 2017).…”

Section: Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding recognition theory, Honneth (1996) neglects the workings of power and domination through recognition (Allen 2010;Angella 2017;Petherbridge 2013;Van den Brink & Owen 2007). His writings lack an adequate discussion of asymmetrical power relations and power dynamics (Gregoratto 2018;Young 2007). He hardly discusses recognition which does not evoke experiences of misrecognition and struggles (Allen 2010).…”

Section: Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Crumbs from the Rich Man's Table?: Municipal Labour Market Policies and Recognition of Welfare Recipients in Sweden

Govender¹

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Labour market policies, also known as activation, are common responses to poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. Activation is characterised by increased individual responsibility, requiring welfare recipients to strive for financial self-sufficiency, be it through job-seeking, training or coaching. In Sweden, activation policies are also implemented in municipal welfare services such as social assistance and activation services. However, knowledge concerning the practical implications of activation for welfare recipients is lacking. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the meaning of recognition in social work with activation. The study explores themes such as poverty, dignity and inclusion in society. Theoretically, the thesis draws on Axel Honneth’s critical theory of recognition, which concerns social justice and a human need of being recognised as a full member of society. The study examines social assistance and activation services in five municipalities in southern Sweden, which participated in a project funded by the European Social Fund, as a case of activation. The project consisted of a skills training programme aimed at enhancing recognition. Social workers underwent training in recognition theory and its implementation in practice over two years. The thesis studies the outcome of the training programme, partly through a survey with social workers and partly through a pre-post-test survey with welfare recipients in the case study municipalities and in five comparison municipalities. However, the study also draws upon welfare recipients’ experiences in activation through focus group and individual interviews, and open-ended survey responses from the pre-post-test. The research findings suggest that the skills training programme did not significantly increase recognition. Also, on the one hand, welfare recipients experience the activation practices as recognising, through supportive individual interactions, increased financial resources and social esteem for work-related contributions. On the other hand, they still experience poverty, low status and limited employment prospects. The main conclusion of the thesis is therefore that welfare recipients are subject to a marginal recognition in activation. On the basis of this conclusion, a discussion is raised about the potential of social work with activation to fully recognise welfare recipients.

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The Ambiguity of Love: Beauvoir, Honneth and Arendt on the Relation Between Recognition, Power and Violence

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

Reflexive discourse analysis: A methodology for the practice of reflexivity

Reflexive discourse analysis: A methodology for the practice of reflexivity

Love and the (Wrong) World. Adorno and Illouz on an Ambivalent Relation

Crumbs from the Rich Man's Table?: Municipal Labour Market Policies and Recognition of Welfare Recipients in Sweden

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