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Journal ArticleDOI

The institution of critique and the critique of institutions

08 Sep 2014-Thesis Eleven (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 124, Iss: 1, pp 20-52
TL;DR: The authors argue that Boltanski's pragmatic sociology makes an important contribution to two central concerns of critical theory: the empirical analysis of the contradictions and conflicts of critical theories, and the analysis of conflicts among critical theories.
Abstract: My paper argues that Luc Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology makes an important contribution to two central concerns of critical theory: the empirical analysis of the contradictions and conflicts of ca...
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the construction and deployment of discursive institutions seeking to control the behaviour of actors, including reducing critique, with the intention of legitimising austerity programs. And they find that austerity governance is characterised by discursive austerity institutions based on market and bureaucratic values.
Abstract: Austerity is an increasingly important feature of urban society in Western countries, both as a site interwoven with the crisis tendencies of capitalism and as spaces mitigating austerity programmes instigated by nation states. Cities have therefore become key spaces in the mediation of ‘austerity urbanism’, but where such processes involve deliberation, making the production of consensus highly problematic. Such tendencies require far greater intellectual sensitivity towards the practices of agents as they seek to enact social control and coordination, as well as subordinate resistance and critique. ‘Pragmatist Sociology’ is utilised in this paper to examine the construction and deployment of discursive institutions seeking to control the behaviour of actors, including reducing critique, with the intention of legitimising austerity programmes. Such discursive institutions establish semantic links between the discursive aims of those seeking to control and the pragmatics of the everyday lives of those subject to such institutions. The paper seeks to examine, first, through a case study of an English city, how key decision-makers construct discursive institutions in the implementation of austerity and subordination of resistance and, second, the actual practices of resisting austerity. In conclusion, the paper finds that austerity governance is characterised by discursive austerity institutions based on market and bureaucratic values, where large-scale critique has been marginalised, resulting in minor forms of critique in the everyday, and compounded by constant efforts at the reconfirmation of discursive institutions.

29 citations


Cites background from "The institution of critique and the..."

  • ...This is not to downplay broader institutional arrangements and policy actions, as outlined by Brenner et al. (2010), but to recognise that such institutions are performative, emergent and uneven in nature; and interwoven with human actors and practices....

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  • ...Peck (2012) and others within the tradition of political economy-based accounts of neoliberalism (e.g. Brenner et al., 2010) tend to downplay the disparate nature of governing arrangements, subordinating it to capital relations (Fuller and Geddes, 2008; Nolan and Featherstone, 2015)....

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  • ...Indeed, whilst Brenner et al. (2010) have highlighted the critical role of particular neoliberalisation processes connecting sites of neoliberalism (e.g. regulatory experimentation), they have not elucidated the major role of societal values and conceptions of common good that underpin social…...

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Posted Content
01 Jan 2018-SocArXiv
TL;DR: The authors examines the growth of this thought collective, analysing how uncertainty has become a central concern of development institutions, and demonstrates that transformations within the aid industry, including the influence of evidence-based policy, the economization of development, and the retreat from macro-planning, created the conditions of possibility for experimentation.
Abstract: In recent years, the use of experimental methodologies has emerged as a central means of evaluating international aid interventions. Today, proponents of randomized control trials (so-called randomistas) are among the most influential of development experts. This article examines the growth of this thought collective, analysing how uncertainty has become a central concern of development institutions. It demonstrates that transformations within the aid industry – including the influence of evidence-based policy, the economization of development, and the retreat from macro-planning – created the conditions of possibility for experimentation. Within this field, the randomistas adeptly pursued a variety of rhetorical, affective, methodological, and organizational strategies that emphasized the lack of credible knowledge within aid and the ability of experiments to rectify the situation. Importantly, they have insisted on the moral worth of experimentation; indeed, the experimental ethic has been proposed as the way to change the spirit of development. Through causal certitude, they propose to reduce human suffering. The rise of experimentation has not, however, eliminated accusations of uncertainty; rather, it has redistributed the means through which knowledge about development is considered credible.

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
04 May 2021
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs and analyses Browne's book Habermas and Giddens' book on Praxis and Modernity, and presents a constructive comparison of the two works, in principle, addressing the manner in which Gidden...
Abstract: This review article reconstructs and analyses Browne’s book Habermas and Giddens on Praxis and Modernity. A constructive comparison. To that end, in principle, it address the manner in which Gidden...

10 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The need to elucidate hierarchy's deeper sources and its legitimations were some of the motivations behind Cornelius... as mentioned in this paper, who was a central concern of work on the modern political imaginary.
Abstract: Hierarchy has been a central concern of work on the modern political imaginary. The need to elucidate hierarchy’s deeper sources and its legitimations were some of the motivations behind Cornelius ...

8 citations


Cites background from "The institution of critique and the..."

  • ...Second, they consider that hierarchy has been instituted in double form and that it is the imaginary that forges the combination between the hierarchy of social relations and the broader institutional configuration of society (Browne 2014)....

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  • ...…influenced the new spirit of capitalism’s network model has led to new forms of impersonal control and value hierarchies, particularly through the quantification of performance and a bureaucratic compulsion that is articulated in terms of participation and self-organisation (Browne 2014, 2017)....

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References
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Book
01 Jan 1959
TL;DR: For instance, in the case of an individual in the presence of others, it can be seen as a form of involuntary expressive behavior as discussed by the authors, where the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.
Abstract: hen an individual enters the presence of oth ers, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his concep tion of self, his attitude toward them, his compe tence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information seems to be sought almost as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will know how best to act in order to call forth a desired response from him. For those present, many sources of information become accessible and many carriers (or “signvehicles”) become available for conveying this information. If unacquainted with the individual, observers can glean clues from his conduct and appearance which allow them to apply their previ ous experience with individuals roughly similar to the one before them or, more important, to apply untested stereotypes to him. They can also assume from past experience that only individuals of a par ticular kind are likely to be found in a given social setting. They can rely on what the individual says about himself or on documentary evidence he provides as to who and what he is. If they know, or know of, the individual by virtue of experience prior to the interaction, they can rely on assumptions as to the persistence and generality of psychological traits as a means of predicting his present and future behavior. However, during the period in which the indi vidual is in the immediate presence of the others, few events may occur which directly provide the others with the conclusive information they will need if they are to direct wisely their own activity . Many crucial facts lie beyond the time and place of interaction or lie concealed within it. For example, the “true” or “real” attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of the individual can be ascertained only indirectly , through his avowals or through what appears to be involuntary expressive behavior. Similarly , if the individual offers the others a product or service, they will often find that during the interaction there will be no time and place immediately available for eating the pudding that the proof can be found in. They will be forced to accept some events as con ventional or natural signs of something not directly available to the senses. In Ichheiser ’s terms, 1 the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.…

33,615 citations

Book
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: The Rise of the Network Society as discussed by the authors is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information, which is based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, it aims to formulate a systematic theory of the information society which takes account of fundamental effects of information technology on the contemporary world.
Abstract: From the Publisher: This ambitious book is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information. Based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, it aims to formulate a systematic theory of the information society which takes account of the fundamental effects of information technology on the contemporary world. The global economy is now characterized by the almost instantaneous flow and exchange of information, capital and cultural communication. These flows order and condition both consumption and production. The networks themselves reflect and create distinctive cultures. Both they and the traffic they carry are largely outside national regulation. Our dependence on the new modes of informational flow gives enormous power to those in a position to control them to control us. The main political arena is now the media, and the media are not politically answerable. Manuel Castells describes the accelerating pace of innovation and application. He examines the processes of globalization that have marginalized and now threaten to make redundant whole countries and peoples excluded from informational networks. He investigates the culture, institutions and organizations of the network enterprise and the concomitant transformation of work and employment. He points out that in the advanced economies production is now concentrated on an educated section of the population aged between 25 and 40: many economies can do without a third or more of their people. He suggests that the effect of this accelerating trend may be less mass unemployment than the extreme flexibilization of work and individualization of labor, and, in consequence, a highly segmented socialstructure. The author concludes by examining the effects and implications of technological change on mass media culture ("the culture of real virtuality"), on urban life, global politics, and the nature of time and history. Written by one of the worlds leading social thinkers and researchers The Rise of the Network Society is the first of three linked investigations of contemporary global, economic, political and social change. It is a work of outstanding penetration, originality, and importance.

15,639 citations


"The institution of critique and the..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Similarly, there are many explanations of a new phase of capitalism in terms of technological change, the fiscal crisis of the welfare state and globalization (Castells 1996; Hardt and Negri 2000; Streeck 2011)....

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Book
01 Dec 1934

10,737 citations

Book
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: In this article, the economy of language exchange and its relation to political power is discussed. But the authors focus on the production and reproduction of Legitimate language and do not address its application in the theory of political power.
Abstract: Preface Editor's Introduction General Introduction Part I The Economy of Linguistic Exchanges Introduction 1. The Production and Reproduction of Legitimate Language 2. Price Formation and the Anticipation of Profits Appendix: Did You Say 'Popular'? Part II The Social Institution of Symbolic Power Introduction 3. Authorized Language: The Social Conditions for the Effectiveness of Ritual Discourse 4. Rites of Institution 5. Description and Prescription: The Conditions of Possibility and the Limits of Political Effectiveness 6. Censorship and the Imposition of Form Part III Symbolic Power and the Political Field 7. On Symbolic Power 8. Political Representation: Elements for a Theory of the Political Field 9. Delegation and Political Fetishism 10. Identity and Representation: Elements for a Critical Reflection on the Idea of Region 11. Social Space and the Genesis of 'Classes' Note Index

9,970 citations