The author begins with a question: who is recognised and by what criteria?
In previous chapters, the author documented rupture, custodianship, and repair. But beneath these processes lies a deeper tension; how institutions decide who counts, who is seen and who is granted legitimacy. Recognition is not just emotional. it is structural. It shapes access, judgement and belonging.
One proposes that recognition is often automated, Systems assign value through metrics, scores and categories. A student is recognised by predicted grades, a patient by symptom codes, a citizen by eligibility thresholds. These forms of recognition are procedural, not relational. and they reflect system logic, not lived experience.
Recognition also operates through omission. Those who do not fit the form; informal carers, neurodivergent thinkers, survivors of trauma, are often excluded. Their needs are not recognised, their testimony is not recorded and their presence is not always acknowledged. The author names this as civic distortion.
This chapter will explore how recognition is structured, how it fails and how it might be reimagined. It will examine the ethics of visibility, the politics of merit and the role of testimony in restoring civic presence. It will offer examples of recognition reclaimed, where staff and citizens resist the default, speak plainly and reshape the record.
