Where Categorizations of Self and Others Meet. Some Remarks on Erik Allardt’s Theory of Struggles for Recognition between Ethnic Groups

Abstract

In my paper I argue that Allardt’s use of a recognition-theoretical vocabulary is not only of interest because it precedes the Honnethian and Taylorian reference points of today’s discourse on recognition by one and a half decades, but also because it contains elements that seem unique and fruitful from the perspective of the contemporary debates on multiculturalism and conflicts of recognition. Furthermore it might be of interest in the context of an NSU Study Group that there has been a Scandinavian theory of recognition, which was worked out decades prior to our own contributions to this field of research.

Keywords

• recognition
• struggle
• social conflict
• ethnicity
• ethnic conflict
• progress
• historical justification