Now more than ever, "recognition" represents a critical concept for social movements, both as a strategic tool and an important policy aim. While the subject's theoretical and empirical dimensions have usually been studied separately, this interdisciplinary collection focuses on both to examine the pursuit of recognition against a transnational backdrop. With a special emphasis on the efforts of women's and Jewish organizations in 20th-century Europe, the studies collected here show how recognition can be meaningfully understood in historical-analytical terms, while demonstrating the extent to which transnationalization determines a movement's reach and effectiveness.

Dieter Rucht is a professor of sociology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Before his retirement he was co-director of a research group on civil society and political mobilization at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Among his best-known works on the sociology of the public sphere and social movements is Modernisierung und neue soziale Bewegungen. Deutschland, Frankreich und USA im Vergleich (Campus 1994).

List of Illustrations

PART I: CONCEPTS

Introduction: The Transnationalization of Struggles for Recognition. Introduction and Summary of the Contributions
Dieter Gosewinkel

Chapter 1. Struggles for Recognition: Bridging Three Separated Spheres of Discourse
Dieter Rucht

Chapter 2. Understanding Transnational Social Movements: Potentials and Limits of Recognition Theory
Volker Heins

PART II: THE CASES FOR WOMEN AND JEWS

Chapter 3. 'By the sacred ties of humanity and common decent'. The Transnationalization of Modern Jewish History and its Discontents
Tobias Metzler

Chapter 4. Jewish, Socialist, Antizionist: The Bund and its Transnational Relations
Gertrud Pickhan

Chapter 5. Institution Building and Policy Making at the Transnational Level: Challenges in the Early History of the World Jewish Congress
Emmanuel Deonna

Chapter 6. Struggles for Recognition and the Concept of Gender in Twentieth Century Poland
Claudia Kraft

Chapter 7. The Emergence of an Impossible Movement: Domestic Workers Organize Globally
Helen Schwenken

PART III: ENLARGING THE SCOPE

Chapter 8. Peace Movements and the Politics of Recognition in the Cold War
Holger Nehring

Chapter 9. Recognition Across Difference: Conceptual Considerations Against an Indian Background
Martin Fuchs

Chapter 10. Injustice Symbols and Global Solidarity
Thomas Olesen

Notes on contributors
Bibliography
Index