Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- Part One Respect in context
- Part Two Respectful young people and children
- Part Three Respectful communities and families
- Part Four Respectful city living
- Part Five Respect, identities and values
- Index
six - ‘The feeling’s mutual’: respect as the basis for cooperative interaction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- Part One Respect in context
- Part Two Respectful young people and children
- Part Three Respectful communities and families
- Part Four Respectful city living
- Part Five Respect, identities and values
- Index
Summary
This chapter reviews our understanding of mutual respect and recognition, identifying it as a general form of cooperative interaction, underpinning practices of civility, sociability and intimacy. It distinguishes between ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ variants of civility and sociability, and throws new light on the nature of solidarity. It makes a connection between disrespect and social inequality, and attempts to show how the latter leads to the former. It criticises governmental approaches to respect, specifically the Respect Action Plan, arguing that these approaches are inherently disrespectful and therefore counterproductive. It explores the issue of ‘informal social control’ as an alternative to governmental approaches, arguing that this is better understood as a type of self-governance. It concludes with suggestions on how mutual respect and recognition may be better promoted in contemporary communities.
Respect, recognition and styles of interaction
Respect is about ‘how people value themselves and others’ – what Sayer (2005: 948) has called ‘lay normativity’ or ‘lay morality’. Sayer elaborates on this point as follows:
We are normative beings, in the sense that we are concerned about the world and the well being of what we value in it, including ourselves. The most important questions people tend to face in their everyday lives are normative ones of how to act, what to do for the best, what is good or bad about what is happening, including how others are treating them. The presence of this concern may be evident in fleeting encounters and conversations, in feelings about how things are going, as well as in momentous decisions such as whether to have children, change job, or what to do about a relationship which has gone bad. (Sayer, 2005: 949)
Respect therefore means valuing, caring about and being concerned for oneself and others. Such valuing and concern assumes a prior identification of the self and others that are valued – otherwise, the respect would have no object or focus. Respect, then, is not action in itself but a disposition to judgement. The action of paying or giving respect is recognition, that is an act of attributing value to a person. Recognition goes beyond respect in clearly signalling a degree of participation in social or public life.
This chapter is concerned with mutual respect, that is where individuals respect and are respected by others. Strictly speaking, however, since mutuality involves acts of exchange, this is really mutual recognition (the exchange of respect).
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- Information
- Securing RespectBehavioural Expectations and Anti-social Behaviour in the UK, pp. 139 - 168Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2009