Beyond Recognition

Challenging the fundamental tenet of the multicultural movement -- that social struggles turning upon race, gender, and sexuality are struggles for recognition -- this work offers a powerful critique of current conceptions of identity and subjectivity based on Hegelian notions of recognition. The author's critical engagement with major texts of contemporary philosophy prepares the way for a highly original conception of ethics based on witnessing. Central to this project is Oliver's contention that the demand for recognition is a symptom of the pathology of oppression that perpetuates subject-object and same-different hierarchies. While theorists across the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences focus their research on multiculturalism around the struggle for recognition, Oliver argues that the actual texts and survivors' accounts from the aftermath of the Holocaust and slavery are testimonials to a pathos that is "beyond recognition". Oliver traces many of the problems with the recognition model of subjective identity to a particular notion of vision presupposed in theories of recognition and misrecognition. Contesting the idea of an objectifying gaze, she reformulates vision as a loving look that facilitates connection rather than necessitates alienation. As an alternative, Oliver develops a theory of witnessing subjectivity. She suggests that the notion of witnessing, with its double meaning as either eyewitness or bearing witness to the unseen, is more promising than recognition for describing the onset and sustenance of subjectivity. Subjectivity is born out of and sustained by the process of witnessing -- the possibility of address and response -- which puts ethicalobligations at its heart.

On the arts and postmodernism

This thesis addresses the need to balance the use of facial recognition systems with the need to protect personal privacy in machine learning and biometric identification. As advances in deep learning accelerate their evolution, facial recognition systems enhance security capabilities, but also risk invading personal privacy. Our research identifies and addresses critical vulnerabilities inherent in facial recognition systems, and proposes innovative privacy-enhancing technologies that anonymize facial data while maintaining its utility for legitimate applications. Our investigation centers on the development of methodologies and frameworks that achieve k-anonymity in facial datasets; leverage identity disentanglement to facilitate anonymization; exploit the vulnerabilities of facial recognition systems to underscore their limitations; and implement practical defenses against unauthorized recognition systems. We introduce novel contributions such as AnonFACES, StyleID, IdDecoder, StyleAdv, and DiffPrivate, each designed to protect facial privacy through advanced adversarial machine learning techniques and generative models. These solutions not only demonstrate the feasibility of protecting facial privacy in an increasingly surveilled world, but also highlight the ongoing need for robust countermeasures against the ever-evolving capabilities of facial recognition technology. Continuous innovation in privacy-enhancing technologies is required to safeguard individuals from the pervasive reach of digital surveillance and protect their fundamental right to privacy. By providing open-source, publicly available tools, and frameworks, this thesis contributes to the collective effort to ensure that advancements in facial recognition serve the public good without compromising individual rights. Our multi-disciplinary approach bridges the gap between biometric systems, adversarial machine learning, and generative modeling to pave the way for future research in the domain and support AI innovation where technological advancement and privacy are balanced.

Writing Beyond Recognition: Queer Re-Storying for Social Change documents and analyzes the insidious ways heteronormativity produces homophobia and heterosexism, including how this operates and is experienced by those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer. Using critical arts research practices read through queer and feminist theories and perspectives, the chapters in the book describe how participants who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered gained critical insights by learning to write and read about their experiences in new ways. Their revised queer stories function to enable a movement beyond merely recognizing to appreciating and understanding those differences. Robson offers a powerful argument about how everyone is narrated by and through discourses of gender and sexuality. Therefore, the content of the book is directed at all readers, not only those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or queer. The book will be important as a text in any course or area of study that is focused on inclusive education, cultural studies in education, critical arts research methods, gender and sexuality studies, and critical literacy approaches in education. Perfect for courses such as: Qualitative Research Methods | Social Justice | Ethnography | Critical Qualitative Inquiry | Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies | Participatory Action Research | Arts-Based Research | Writing | Autobiography | Curriculum Studies | Teacher Education | Cultural Studies | Reading and Literacy Education | Community Education | Adult Education

Seattle police sergeant Lou Boldt is stunned when the local fire investigator presents him with frightening evidence in a series of fires that have occurred in the Seattle area. These white-hot fires burn so cleanly that even the ash disintegrates--leaving not a trace of its victims or any evidence of criminal activity. Only when Boldt is taunted by someone sending him pieces of melted green plastic--houses from a Monopoly board--does he realize that an arsonist is involving him in a deadly game.

In Beyond Doer and Done To, Jessica Benjamin, author of the path-breaking Bonds of Love, expands her theory of mutual recognition and its breakdown into the complementarity of "doer and done to." Her innovative theory charts the growth of the Third in early development through the movement between recognition and breakdown, and shows how it parallels the enactments in the psychoanalytic relationship. Benjamin’s recognition theory illuminates the radical potential of acknowledgment in healing both individual and social trauma, in creating relational repair in the transformational space of thirdness. Benjamin’s unique formulations of intersubjectivity make essential reading for both psychoanalytic therapists and theorists in the humanities and social sciences.

Tackling One Health from a multi-disciplinary perspective, this book offers in-depth insight into how our health and the health of every living creature and our ecosystem are all inextricably connected. Presents critical population health topics, written by an international group of experts Addresses the technical aspects of the subject Offers potential policy solutions to help mitigate current threats and prevent additional threats from occurring

Recognition is one of the most debated concepts in contemporary social and political thought. Its proponents, such as Axel Honneth, hold that to be recognized by others is a basic human need that is central to forming an identity, and the denial of recognition deprives individuals and communities of something essential for their flourishing. Yet critics including Judith Butler have questioned whether recognition is implicated in structures of domination, arguing that the desire to be recognized can motivative individuals to accept their assigned place in the social order by conforming to oppressive norms or obeying repressive institutions. Is there a way to break this impasse? Recognition and Ambivalence brings together leading scholars in social and political philosophy to develop new perspectives on recognition and its role in social life. It begins with a debate between Honneth and Butler, the first sustained engagement between these two major thinkers on this subject. Contributions from both proponents and critics of theories of recognition further reflect upon and clarify the problems and challenges involved in theorizing the concept and its normative desirability. Together, they explore different routes toward a critical theory of recognition, departing from wholly positive or negative views to ask whether it is an essentially ambivalent phenomenon. Featuring original, systematic work in the philosophy of recognition, this book also provides a useful orientation to the key debates on this important topic.