One dimensional man
About: This article is published in Philosophical Books.The article was published on 1965-05-01. It has received 2842 citations till now.
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TL;DR: A number of studies in the "sociology of knowledge" or the "socialology of sociology" have raised questions about the shaping of research strategies, design, methods and results by the "domain assumptions" or implicit "paradigms" of the scientist as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Any research strategy is based on assumptions about the nature of the reality to be studied and how that reality may best be examined. Often in social research the assumptions are so fundamental to the perspective of the designer that they remain unstated. A number of studies in the ’sociology of knowledge’ or the ’sociology of sociology’ have raised questions about the shaping of research strategies, design, methods, and results by the ’domain assumptions’ [36] or implicit ’paradigms’ of the scientist [1, 32, 33, 36]. Although relatively little attention has been given to the theoretical bases of leisure sociology, there is no reason to exempt this aspect of sociology from such theoretical scrutiny. Rather, some of the limitations
28 citations
Dissertation•
01 Mar 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed three cases of environmental governance in the developing country context of Paraguay and found that public participation in environmental decision-making is often constrained by what is considered evidence and evidence is assumedly based on fact, but evidence-based arguments are influenced by social and political factors.
Abstract: Recent debates about environmental governance emphasize the roles of participation,
evidence and deliberation. Authors have discussed how deliberative theory can deepen
commitments to public participation in policy debates. Evidence, however, is often
presented as neutral and objective fact, and on this basis is privileged in policy debates,
preemptively defining environmental problems and solutions. Under this circumstance,
how can policy processes take deliberation seriously? How can the politics of evidence
be identified and openly addressed by participants in policy processes?
These research questions are addressed by analyzing three cases of environmental
governance mechanisms, in the developing country context of Paraguay. The cases
were selected for their emphasis on evidence and participation in decision-making.
Also, each brings into question the politics of evidence, as their policy implications have
raised debate and contention. The specific governance mechanisms explored in this
study are: 1) land classification for conservation and rural development; 2) land use
planning scenarios generated with a computer modeling program; and, 3) the
development of global certification standards for soy production within the
‘Roundtable on Responsible Soy’. Each is seen as a means of addressing what is widely
seen as rapid and extensive environmental degradation in Paraguay, and also the historic
and continued exclusion of much of the public in environmental decision-making.
The principal findings of my analysis are that i) public participation in environmental
governance is often constrained by what is considered evidence; and ii) evidence is
considered such because it is assumedly based on fact, but evidence-based arguments
are influenced by social and political factors. As a result of these findings, I argue for a
new approach to environmental governance – critical deliberative governance. A reflexive,
non-essentialist approach to knowledge strengthens deliberation, by making explicit the
social basis for authority and credibility, and opening up its tenets to debate. This
critical approach to knowledge is vital for a democracy in which normative arguments
are not effectively closed off by formal and authoritative expertise.
28 citations
Additional excerpts
...It was the Critical Theory school where scholars such as Habermas (1970; 1987) and Marcuse (1964) developed much of the theoretical basis that has intellectually fed green politics and more progressive deliberative approaches....
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TL;DR: Geoengineering would mask and reproduce capital's contradictory needs to selfexpand, on the one hand, and maintain a stable climate system on the other. The Plan B frame, which presents geoengine...
Abstract: Geoengineering would mask and reproduce capital’s contradictory needs to self-expand, on the one hand, and maintain a stable climate system, on the other. The Plan B frame, which presents geoengine...
28 citations
Cites background or methods from "One dimensional man"
...However, we draw from Marcuse (1964, 1972) to shape our analysis and, therefore, focus on the political-economic dimensions and economic and technological justifications for SAI....
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...Society would have the opportunity to set new substantive goals, which would also alter the creation, use, and our relationship with technologies (Marcuse 1964, p. 232)....
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...Just as technical efforts to prevent an atomic catastrophe during the Cold War ‘overshadowed’ public examination of the root causes and solutions (Marcuse 1964, p. ix), so too these technical geoengineering efforts overshadow the underlying changes needed to prevent an environmental catastrophe....
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...(Herbert Marcuse 1964, p. 17) We draw from the ideas of the first-generation Frankfurt School, particularly from Marcuse, to examine the political economy and framing of geoengineering....
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...Drawing from Marcuse (1964, 1972), this section examines partial though illuminating evidence that suggests SAI could be used as a tool to protect elite interests and the requirements of capitalism....
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TL;DR: It is argued that Big Data should be recognized as manifesting multiple and conflicting trajectories that reflect human intentionality and particular patterns of power and authority, and the subtle forms of control in the political ecology of Big Data that undermine its promise as transformational knowledge.
Abstract: The explosion of data grows at a rate of roughly five trillion bits a second, giving rise to greater urgency in conceptualizing the infosphere (Floridi 2011) and understanding its implications for knowledge and public policy. Philosophers of technology and information technologists alike who wrestle with ontological and epistemological questions of digital information tend to emphasize, as Floridi does, information as our new ecosystem and human beings as interconnected informational organisms, inforgs at home in ambient intelligence. But the linguistic and conceptual representations of Big Data--the massive volume of both structured and unstructured data--and the real world practice of data-mining for patterns and meaningful interpretation of evidence reveal tension and ambiguity in the bold promise of data analytics. This paper explores the tacit epistemology of the rhetoric and representation of Big Data and suggests a richer account of its ambiguities and the paradox of its real world materiality. We argue that Big Data should be recognized as manifesting multiple and conflicting trajectories that reflect human intentionality and particular patterns of power and authority. Such patterns require attentive exploration and moral appraisal if we are to resist simplistic informationist ontologies of Big Data, and the subtle forms of control in the political ecology of Big Data that undermine its promise as transformational knowledge.
28 citations
Cites background from "One dimensional man"
...Yet it also emphasizes the extent to which technological values can become fully internalized, where new practices are rationalized and the possibility of new and more subtle ‘‘forms of control’’ emerge in the mass consumption of modes of thinking (Marcuse 1991) emerge....
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25 Sep 2015
TL;DR: The work of the left Vienna Circle, in particular of Otto Neurath, defended two central claims of ecological economics: first, economics needs to address the various ways in which economic institutions and relations are embedded within the physical world and have ecological preconditions that are a condition of their sustainability; second, reasonable economic and social choices cannot be founded on purely monetary valuations as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: John O’Neill and Thomas Uebel Analytical philosophy has had a long but little noted influence on the development of ecological economics. The work of the left Vienna Circle, in particular of Otto Neurath, defended two central claims of ecological economics: first, economics needs to address the various ways in which economic institutions and relations are embedded within the physical world and have ecological preconditions that are a condition of their sustainability; second, reasonable economic and social choices cannot be founded on purely monetary valuations. Both of these claims were developed in two distinct but related debates that Otto Neurath engaged in. The first was the socialist calculation debate. The arguments of the Austrian critics of the possibility of socialism there, in particular Ludwig Mises and Friedrich Hayek, were aimed not only at socialism but at these two central claims of ecological economics. The second was the little known debate between the left Vienna Circle and the Frankfurt School in the 1930s. In this debate one can discern the origins of two distinct traditions of political ecology that still remain in tension in subsequent debates: a science-based approach that is concerned with the material and ecological conditions for human well-being and social relationships; and a science-sceptical approach that takes the environmental crisis to be founded in a technocratic commitment to the domination of humans and nature that is built into the constitution of scientific reason. In this chapter we explore these different debates and show the continuing significance of the analytical tradition to a defensible ecological economics. As shall be evident, running through the debates is a common theme about the nature and limits of scientific and practical reason, a theme that retains its importance for understanding the relationship between ecology, democracy and political economy.
28 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined accounts of travelers in terms of Erving Goffman's front versus back distinction and found that tourists try to enter back regions of the places they visit because these regions are associated with intimacy of relations and authenticity of experiences.
Abstract: The problem of false consciousness and its relationship to the social structure of tourist establishments is analyzed. Accounts of travelers are examined in terms of Erving Goffman's front versus back distinction. It is found that tourists try to enter back regions of the places they visit because these regions are associated with intimacy of relations and authenticity of experiences. It is also found that tourist settings are arrenged to produce the impression that a back region has been entered even when this is not the case. In tourist settings, between the front and the back there is a series of special spaces designed to accommodate tourists and to support their beliefs in the authenticity of their experiences. Goffman's front-back dichotomy is shown to be ideal poles of a continuum, or a variable.
2,627 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1995
TL;DR: Casey as discussed by the authors explored the effects of contemporary practices of work on the self and found that changes currently occuring in the world of work are part of the vast social and cultural changes that are challenging the meta trends of modern industrialism.
Abstract: Despite recent interest in the effects of restructuring and redesigning the work place, the link between individual identity and structural change has usually been asserted rather than demonstrated. Through an extensive review of data from field work in a multi-national corporation Catherine Casey changes this. She knows that changes currently occuring in the world of work are part of the vast social and cultural changes that are challenging the meta trends of modern industrialism. These events affect what people do everyday, and they are altering relations among ourselves and with the physical world. This valuable book is not only a critical analysis of the transformations occurring in the world of work, but an exploration of the effects of contemporary practices of work on the self.
540 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors interpret critical urban theory with reference to four mutually interconnected elements: its theoretical character; its reflexivity; its critique of instrumental reason; and its emphasis on the disjuncture between the actual and the possible.
Abstract: What is critical urban theory? While this phrase is often used in a descriptive sense, to characterize the tradition of post‐1968 leftist or radical urban studies, I argue that it also has determinate social–theoretical content. To this end, building on the work of several Frankfurt School social philosophers, this paper interprets critical theory with reference to four, mutually interconnected elements—its theoretical character; its reflexivity; its critique of instrumental reason; and its emphasis on the disjuncture between the actual and the possible. On this basis, a brief concluding section considers the status of urban questions within critical social theory. In the early 21st century, I argue, each of the four key elements within critical social theory requires sustained engagement with contemporary patterns of capitalist urbanization. Under conditions of increasingly generalized, worldwide urbanization, the project of critical social theory and that of critical urban theory have been intertwined a...
356 citations
TL;DR: The authors provide an overview of the key images of identity in organizations found in the research literature, including self-doubters, strugglers, surfers, storytellers, strategists, stencils and soldiers.
Abstract: This article provides an overview of the key images of identity in organizations found in the research literature. Image refers to the overall idea or conceptualization, capturing how researchers relate to — and shape — a phenomenon. Seven images are suggested: self-doubters, strugglers, surfers, storytellers, strategists, stencils and soldiers. These refer to how the individual is metaphorically understood in terms of identity, that is, how the researcher (research text) captures the individual producing a sense of self. The article aims to facilitate orientation — or encourage productive confusion — within the field, encourage reflexivity and sharpen analytic choices through awareness of options for how to conceptualize self-identity constructions.
289 citations