Seeing Others: How Recognition Works, and How It Can Heal a Divided World

「構建社會正義的深思熟慮方案」——Kirkus Reviews

哈佛大學著名社會學家蜜雪兒·拉蒙特(Michèle Lamont)在書中深入剖析認同的力量，使他人變得可見並受到重視，主張在這個被日益擴大的不平等和美國夢的過時所定義的時代，應該重新審視我們所重視的事物——對尊重的追求。

她根據近四十年的研究，並透過對年輕人和文化偶像的訪談來展開討論，受訪者包括Nikole Hannah-Jones、Cornel West、Michael Schur和Roxane Gay。

她認為數十年的新自由主義政策對我們的自我價值感產生了負面影響，不論是富人還是窮人都受到影響，而美國夢對大多數人來說已經變得遙不可及。我們追求物質生活與職業成就，以自力更生、競爭和學歷來評價自己和他人，當推崇中上層社會的生活方式成為主流價值，無疑加劇了工人、少數族裔、LGBTQIA+ 群體以及其他少數群體的邊緣化。

拉蒙特基於多年的專業知識和她對各種廣泛問題之間關聯性的深刻洞察，《看見他人》提醒我們，社會需要更加關注共同點，並尊重不同的生活方式，這樣我們才能減少偏見，促進理解，並為實現更公平、更包容的社會奠定基礎。

“A thoughtful recipe for building social justice” (Kirkus Reviews) from acclaimed Harvard sociologist Michèle Lamont that makes the case for reexamining what we value—the quest for respect—in an age that has been defined by growing inequality and the obsolescence of the American dream.

In this capstone work, Michèle Lamont unpacks the power of recognition—rendering others as visible and valued—by drawing on nearly forty years of research and new interviews with young adults and cultural icons—from Nikole Hannah-Jones and Cornel West to Michael Schur and Roxane Gay.

Decades of neoliberalism have negatively impacted our sense of self-worth, up and down the income ladder, just as the American dream has become out of reach for most people. By prioritizing material and professional success, we judge ourselves and others in terms of self-reliance, competition, and diplomas. The foregrounding of these attributes of the upper-middle class in our values system feeds into the marginalization of workers, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and minority groups. The solution, Lamont argues, is to shift our focus towards what we have in common while actively working to recognize the diverse ways one can live a life. Building on Lamont’s lifetime of expertise and revelatory connections between broad-ranging issues, Seeing Others delivers realistic sources of hope: by reducing stigma, we put change within reach.

Just as Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone did for a previous generation, Seeing Others strikes at the heart of our modern struggles and illuminates an inclusive path forward with new ways for understanding our world.