Recognition lies at the heart of multiple contests around citizenship rights, identity politics, claims for material re-distribution, and demands for past harms to be acknowledged. This book seeks to consider where various contemporary contests over recognition are taking us. By looking at disputes around disability, race and ethnicity, nationalism, class, sexuality and ownership of the past, it explores the contemporary significance of recognition claims. In reflection of the global contexts of such disputes, the book draws on accounts from Europe, the USA, Latin America, the Middle East and Australasia. In doing so the book explores the following questions: Do we live in a moment where recognition is opening up to allow for greater space for varied or hybrid forms of living and mutual valuation, provided with rights and protection? Or is recognition paradoxically a means to narrow down options to more restrictive categories of acceptable ways of living and legitimate access to rights?

This book explores the social and political significance of contemporary recognition contests in areas such as disability, race and ethnicity, nationalism, class and sexuality, drawing on accounts from Europe, the USA, Latin America, the Middle East and Australasia.