Beyond a Colonial Understanding of Honneth's Recognition Theory: The Case of Mapuche People and Latin America's Politics of Recognition

ABSTRACT Following the critiques addressed by postcolonial and decolonial thought against critical theory, we highlight the recognition theory of Axel Honneth, the main representative of the third generation of the Frankfurt, when confronted with postcolonial social struggles of indigenous minorities and their subaltern realities. Though the former implies pointing out limits and critiques of Honnet's recognition theory, we also aim to boost the renewal of such social theory putting forward a series of potentialities implicit to Honneth's theory that remain undeveloped. In this sense, confronting such a theory with the plural concept of ethnic minority along with a concrete case of the Mapuche indigenous people and the postcolonial forms of politics of recognition developed in Latin America, may prove to be a fertile ground to enhance a series of considerations to reshape and develop recognition theory.