ABSTRACT
This chapter defends the first layer of a cosmopolitan response to global poverty from the perspective of theories of recognition, through a main focus on the concept of social suffering. By departing from the more dominant conceptions of social suffering found within recognition theory, and by focusing mainly on the alternative insights of Emmanuel Renault, Iain Wilkinson and Arthur Kleinman, a concept of social suffering is developed which explains how it often prevents full movements of resistance by the exploited or the oppressed. The chapter focuses on this form of social suffering to defend a concept of ‘reason-to-value’ agency, relevant to varied conditions of worldwide poverty. This concept focuses on the ways the very poor might often creatively strategise and mitigate their vulnerabilities in the context of their social suffering, in such a way which suggests gateways to their coordinated recognition struggles.
