Abstract
In this chapter, Charles Taylor’s politics of recognition is analysed to identify the main assumptions and premises underlying his proposed politics. I will criticize these assumptions on the basis that these premises can lead to mono-culturalism and can facilitate and legitimize racial and cultural profiling. I will show that Taylor’s politics of recognition is a reductionist politics, and as such, it always already leaves some people or cultural groups unrecognized or misrecognized. I will employ two profile articles of Iranian immigrants written in recent years towards my argument that Taylor’s politics of recognition is inadequate and problematic for the task of bringing about a just representation of various cultural groups in Western nations and especially in Canada.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bannerji, H. (2000). On the dark side of the nation: Politics of multiculturalism and the state of Canada. In The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and Gender. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Benyamin Bahadori profile. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benyamin_Bahadori.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Derrida, J. (1978). Writing and Difference (A. Bass, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Foucault M. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. England, Brighton: Harvester Press; 1980.
Fuss D. Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference. New York: Routledge; 1989.
Hall S. Conclusion: The multi-cultural question. In: Hesse B, editor. Un/settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, “Transruptions”. New York, London: Zed Books; 2000.
Hesse B. Introduction: Unsettled multiculturalisms. In: Hesse B, editor. Un/settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, ‘Transruptions’. New York, London: Zed Books; 2000.
Ibrahim M. The spectre of “and”: Multiculturalism, antiracism and the third continent. Inquiry. 2003;22(2):5–15.
Mahjorri, R. (2005, June 12). What Iranian immigrants do in Vancouver? Cited on the BBC Persian websit.
Peperzak A. To the Other: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press; 1993.
Taylor C. The politics of recognition. In: Goldgerg D, editor. Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell; 1994.
Todd, D. (2007, October 13). Cultural Clash. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from http://www.canada.com/ vancouversun/news/story.html?id = 098b78ab-995c-48bc-90a3-b9b703563a5a
Typical Persian-non Persian Group profile. See: http://ubc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2214684592
Zizek S. Introduction: The spectre of ideology. In: Zizek S, editor. Mapping Ideology. London: Verso; 2000. p. 1–33.
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Sense Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shidmehr, N. (2012). Towards a New Politics of Recognition. In: Wright, H.K., Singh, M., Race, R. (eds) Precarious International Multicultural Education. Transgressions, vol 84. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-894-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-894-0_5
Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam
Online ISBN: 978-94-6091-894-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)