Brutalization of the social conflict: struggles for recognition in the early 21st century

Abstract

In several of his analyses, Talcott Parsons describes the establishment of modern societies as a differentiation process across spheres of mutual recognition. In this paper, I use Parsons’ social theory of recognition to examine features of recent social conflicts. I begin with Parsons’ description of the struggles for recognition that took place during his lifetime in the highly industrialized societies of the West (I). I then use Parsons’ view of normatively ordered recognition conflicts to point out societal trends that led, in the final third of the twentieth century, to a gradual undermining of the pacification structures postulated by Parsons (II). An initial outcome of this apparent disintegration I describe as a ‘brutalization’ of social conflict. By this I mean a state of society where struggles for social recognition escalate and become anomic because resolution can no longer be found in the existing systemic spheres of negotiation (III). This paper shows the importance of the term recognition to social theory by following Parsons' theory in analyzing structural transformations that are currently emerging in response to social conflicts.

Keywords:

• brutalization of social conflict
• spheres of recognition
• struggles for recognition
• Talcott Parsons

Notes

1. Parson's classic theory of motivation stems from his middle period and is strongly geared to Freud's theory of the instincts (Parsons 1964a).

2. See Parsons (1954a, 50–68) on the symbolic role of money.

3. A particularly embarrassing version is Norbert Bolz's (2006) Die Helden der Familie.

4. On the first and second trend, see Parsons (and Winston White), ‘The link between character and society’ (Parsons 1964d, 183–235); on the third trend see his ‘Certain primary source and patterns of aggression in the social structure of the Western world’ (Parsons 1954b, 319ff.).

5. See Lüscher, Schultheis, and Wehrspaun (1990); see alto the overview I have tried to offer (Honneth 1994, 90–9).

6. On this tripartite division of ‘winners’, ‘losers’, and ‘those not authorized to take part’, seethe superb essay by Claus Offe (1996) Moderne ‘Barbarei’: Der Naturzustand im Kleinformat?

Translated by Jeremy Gaines