7.3 Recognition of human value and wellbeing
Recognition refers to a reciprocal respect for both the unique and equal status of all others.86 A view of social justice
which emphasises recognition is concerned with human value beyond a person’s status and economic productivity.
This approach is consistent with the redistributive discourse (RED) of social inclusion which addresses social, cultural
and political participation as well as economic participation.
Recognition issues are usually understood as simply a consequence of a lack of material resources, for example the
idea that powerlessness, a pervading sense of shame and failure, and a loss of hope come from being poor. However
feminism, multiculturalism and other social movements have persistently called for greater attention to the unjust
social and cultural processes that, as well as creating injustices on their own, are integral to the unjust distribution of
material resources.87
A focus on recognising human value and wellbeing leads to a distribution of resources that is unequal, based on an
individual’s needs or requirements. As Morrison explains: “If we are to truly appreciate the Other, through recognising
their uniqueness, their worth, and their ways of being in the world, we cannot justify or tolerate their suffering from
lack of economic inequality. Human dignity requires both due recognition, and adequate redistribution, and social
inclusion requires nothing less and, perhaps, nothing more”.88 It also has the potential to valorise unpaid work as a
legitimate contribution to society.
Understanding institutional recognition issues sheds light on what is a fair redistribution. For example, increasing
the wages of poorly paid childcare workers is an issue which, at first glance, would surely seem to be about
redistribution. However, as MacDonald and Merrill explain, “childcare workers are mostly women, often from minority
ethnic groups, and their work is frequently devalued... their contributions to the greater good are demeaned and
misrecognised because their work is defined as unskilled, as work that would (and perhaps should) be limited to the
private sphere.” Therefore “any attempt to revalue care work must involve not only appeals to redistributive justice,
but also to overcoming institutional misrecognition”.89
An example of overcoming institutional misrecognition is the Fair Work Australia decision of 16 May 2011, which found
that social and community services (SACS) workers are paid lower wages than public sector employees doing similar
work. The Tribunal found that “gender has been important in creating the gap between pay in the SACS industry and
pay in comparable state and local government”.90