Dr. Annette Hilscher

Annette hilscher website

Research Project

Daily practices in responding to discrimination in Germany, France and Canada.
An empirical implementation of recognition theory.

The research project investigates the extent to which Black people experience social contempt and their adaptation and resistance practices developed in response to the process. The study was conducted in Germany, France and Canada, and is based upon Axel Honneth’s recognition theory. These experiences of discrimination are then understood as experiences of social contempt, in other words, as a form of negative recognition.

The heart of the work is its own empirical study based on a series of detailed group discussions and biographical and narrative interviews with Black individuals. The survey focused on participants' daily experiences: first, four discursive practices in the negotiation of experiencing contempt, and then two types of community solidarity in the peri-urban and individualization in the urban space were elaborated. Subsequently, the social genesis of these perspectives was explored from an intersectional perspective covering the dimensions of social space, gender and body.

These empirical results were discussed in a country comparison with an analysis of the current laws against discrimination and laws for equal treatment in each of the three countries. Finally, the empirical results were applied to the theoretical framework. This theorization focuses on the extension of Honneth's theory of recognition and contempt with regards to "race" and community solidarity, as well as the development of an independent concept of adaptation and resistance used as daily practices of action.