This article deals with the relations between work and recognition. It takes as its point of departure Axel Honneth’s idea of a normative character from individual acknowledgements. To do this, the article presents a review of relevant literature and also discusses exerpts of semi-estructured interviews. The first section (I) tries to connect the concepts of work, identification and recognition in order to show a differentiated version of the thesis of division of labor, in which socially organized labor, functional identification and social reproduction are connected through social recognition. Following that, it discusses (II) Honneth’s diagnosis of a barbarization of the social conflict as a diagnosis of the current state of division of labour. On the third section (III), the article presents sections of two interviews made by the author, which will help (IV) delineate a model of sociology of work based on the theory of recognition. On the whole, here is presented a conceptual reflection accompanied by informative insights about how perceptions of merit affects the relations between work, identification, and recognition.
Social division of labor; Reciprocal recognition; Meritocracy; Normativity; Self-regulated work activities