Program: "Recognition, Migration, and Critical Theory"

The Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research of the University of Salzburg is organising a workshop on "Recognition, Migration, and Critical Theory" on 3-4 March 2020.

The aim of this workshop is to discuss to what extent the concept of recognition is suitable for the analysis and critique of current migration issues. David Ingram (Loyola University Chicago) will give the keynote talk at this workshop.

In recent years, the concept of recognition has found an astonishing resonance in social and political philosophy and ethics, but also in the social sciences. The claim is made that social relations and processes can be better understood through the reference to recognition and misrecognition, which opens up potentials for criticism and overcoming injustices and distortions in modern, capitalist societies. Critics, on the other hand, often argue that the focus on recognition is misguided and obscures the view of the actual social problems and their causes and is therefore not suited to pointing the way out. Central to many discussions is always the application of a critical theory of recognition and the extent to which it is able to understand and analyse emerging social phenomena and developments. Migration movements and the associated tensions are phenomena that have become the focus of scientific, political and public debate in recent years. Migration in all its forms and its causes is by no means a new phenomenon, but it has become more intense in some parts of the world and, especially in Europe, its perception by politics and the population has changed. So what contribution can a critical theory of recognition make here? Is the concept of recognition appropriate to answer the political, social, ethical and socio-theoretical questions posed by migration, flight and integration? To what extent can global migration movements and their causation through displacement, war, poverty, hunger or climate change be analyzed in terms of recognition theory, or is there a need for other conceptual approaches and theories? And finally, the question what distinguishes the perspective of recognition from the many other theories and normative concepts in social and political philosophy that deal with migration, and what additional insights or critique it has to offer.

There is no attendance fee but places are limited. Please send an e-mail to cepr@sbg.ac.at before February 15 if you wish to attend. Précis' of the papers are shared in advance among all participants.

Program:

Tuesday
10.00-11.00 David Ingram (Loyola Chicago): What Recognition Theory Can Add to an Ethics of Migration

11.15-12.15 Drew Thompson (Loyola Chicago): Migration, Recognition, and Autonomy: Some Challenges

13.30-14.30 Martin Huth (Vienna): Migration and the (selective) recognition of vulnerability. Reflections on solidarity between Judith Butler and the Critical Theory

14.45-15.45 Simon L Joergensen (Aalborg): Naturalization policies as practices of recognition

16.00-17.00 Onni Hirvonen (Jyväskylä,) Recognition and Civic Selection

17.15-18.15 Kevin A. Escudero (Brown University): A Comparative Social Movement Approach to the Politics of Recognition in the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement

Wednesday
09.00-10.00 Sabine Hirschauer (New Mexico): German and U.S. Borderlands – Recognition and the Copenhagen School in the Era of Hybrid Identities

10.15-11.15 Rizza Kaye C. Cases (U of the Philippines): Claims-Making and Recognition through Care Work:  Narratives of Belonging and Exclusion of Filipinos in New York and London

11.30-12.30  Alyssa Marie Kvalvaag  (Nord University) & Gabriela Mezzanotti (University of South-Eastern Norway): A quest for justice: A case study on recognition in migrant interactions with Child Welfare Services in Norway

13.30-14.30 Hilkje Hänel (Berlin): Epistemic Injustice, Recognition and Refugees

14.45-15.45 Heiko Berner (Salzburg): Asylum and Reification

​16.00-17.00 Gonçalo Marcelo: Transnationalizing recognition: a new grammar for an old problem
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