Recognition Struggles and Social Movements: Contested Identities, Agency and Power

Recognition Struggles and Social Movements is the first book to look comparatively and cross-nationally at the dynamic interplay between those fighting for a fairer division of economic resources and those struggling for recognition and respect of group differences. Combining theory and empirical research, it decodes the moral grammar of recognition into real struggles of collective actors who contest social hierarchies in arenas of power - from the Roma in Hungary to the Travesti prostitutes in Brazil, from abortion discourse in the US and Germany to the translation of feminist texts from East and West. Looking through multiple mirrors of gender, race/ethnic and sexual identities, the authors dramatize the competition and conflicts among groups vying for recognition. Written by prominent scholars across disciplinary and geographical borders, this book breaks new ground in social movement studies confronting issues of power and governance, authenticity, and boundary making.

• Addresses key debates on the political agenda around multiculturalism and identity politics, with original empirical research • Includes rich comparative and historical empirical cases • Authors are leading scholars in their respective fields

Preface; Notes on contributors; Introduction Barbara Hobson; Part I. Shifting Paradigms? Recognition and Redistribution: 1. Rethinking recognition: overcoming displacement and reification in cultural politics Nancy Fraser; Part II. Frames and Claims: Authority and Voice: 2. The gendering of governance and the governance of gender: abortion politics in Germany and the United States Myra Marx Ferree and William A. Gamson; 3. Recognition struggles in universalistic and gender distinctive frames: Sweden and Ireland Barbara Hobson; 4. Movements of feminism: the circulation of discourses about women Susan Gal; Part III. Competing Claims: Struggles in Dialogue: 5. Contesting ‘race’ and gender in the European Union: a multi-layered recognition struggle for voice and visibility Fiona Williams; 6. Woman, black, indigenous: recognition struggles in dialogue Marilyn Lake; 7. U.S. women’s suffrage through a multicultural lens: intersecting struggles of recognition Diane Sainsbury; 8. Conflicting struggles for recognition: the Roma struggle in the face of women’s recognition Júlia Szalai; Part IV. Authenticity: Who Speaks for Whom?: 9. Scandalous acts: the politics of shame among Brazilian travesti prostitutes Don Kulick and Charles H. Klein; 10. Mobilizing for recognition and redistribution on behalf of others? The case of mothers against drugs in Spain Celia Valiente; Part V. Epilogues: Recognition and the struggle for political voice Anna Phillips; ‘Reconstruction struggles’ and process theories of social movements Carol Mueller; Notes; References; Index.

‘This book is a welcome addition to the field.‘ British Journal of Sociology