Starting from recent works devoted to the economy of esteem, this paper investigates the way in which esteem is demanded and distributed. Starting from the situation of its inequality of distribution related to the various types of social positions, it asks how this difference of attribution of recognition generates conflicts. Struggles for recognition can be interpreted as dangerous conflicts for the preservation of social relations because of the fact that they do not seem to admit the possibility of compromises and create situations characterized by the logic of “either/or” specific to identity politics. The paper submits this thesis to criticism, and provides a way to think about such struggles for recognition as constitutive of social integration.