• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.325-348
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• 2015

The main purpose of the study is to explore the implications of Recognition Paradigm for domains of social work, especially focusing on the arguments exchanged between Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser, two eminent scholars in this field. The Recognition paradigm, which is an alternative perspective in practical philosophy developed to cope with the changing socio-political situations in the late modern society, is providing the domain of social work with a lot of important theoretical and practical implications as well. In particular, Honneth's recognition theory which considers the recognition as a basic prototype in human development and construction of society is able to clarify the fundamental mission and territory the social work profession is to pursue. But for the meanwhile, Fraser's dual perspective of justice, which is an extended version of redistributive justice introducing the recognition component in it, can suggest diverse practical strategies to confront complex injustice-making structures effectively in the later modern society. In spite of these abundant implications in both theoretical and practical areas, the recognition paradigm still save several fundamental considerations for social work, such as the real meaning of the recognition in social work, the exact population from whom social work seek to get recognition, and the adequate strategy, so-called "recognition struggle" which social work is to employ to acquire the recognition.