ABSTRACT

A common theme in analyses of social problems today is the increasing importance of different aspects of social identity in political claim making. Benhabib observes, “Since the late 1970s demands for the recognition of identities based on gender, race, language, ethnic background, and sexual orientation have been challenging the legitimacy of established constitutional democracies” (2002: viii). Taylor and Honneth (1992) have made similar, but separate, arguments about the growing significance of the “politics of recognition” (Taylor 1992). This growing demand for the social and political inclusion of ethnic groups is often interpreted as the rise of ethnic particularism. But particularistic demand for recognition in politics typically refers to value-normative universalism as an integral part of our global multi-culture (Nederveen Pieterse 2007), as epitomized in the omnipresent discourse on human rights.