The institution of critique and the critique of institutions
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...
Citations
More filters
330 citations
Book•
23 Feb 2017TL;DR: Debating Humanity as discussed by the authors explores sociological and philosophical efforts to delineate key features of humanity that identify us as members of the human species and defends a universalistic principle of humanity as vital to any adequate understanding of social life.
Abstract: Debating Humanity explores sociological and philosophical efforts to delineate key features of humanity that identify us as members of the human species. After challenging the normative contradictions of contemporary posthumanism, this book goes back to the foundational debate on humanism between Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger in the 1940s and then re-assesses the implicit and explicit anthropological arguments put forward by seven leading postwar theorists: self-transcendence (Hannah Arendt), adaptation (Talcott Parsons), responsibility (Hans Jonas), language (Jurgen Habermas), strong evaluations (Charles Taylor), reflexivity (Margaret Archer) and reproduction of life (Luc Boltanski). Genuinely interdisciplinary and boldly argued, Daniel Chernilo has crafted a novel philosophical sociology that defends a universalistic principle of humanity as vital to any adequate understanding of social life.
51 citations
TL;DR: Boltanski's pragmatic sociology is mainly inspired by pragmatism and ethnomethodology, but it is still concerned with sociology as a critical project of emancipation as discussed by the authors, which can greatly advance international political sociology by further developing a practice theoretical account which reconciles Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology.
Abstract: Luc Boltanski is one of the most important contemporary social theorists. Whether and how his sociology matters for International Relations (IR) theory has, so far, not been explored. Boltanski’s work, as this article demonstrates, can greatly advance international political sociology by further developing a practice theoretical account which reconciles Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeology. Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology is mainly inspired by pragmatism and ethnomethodology, but it is still concerned with sociology as a critical project of emancipation. He aims to renew critical sociology by focusing on the ‘critical capacities’ ordinary actors use in disputes and controversies of political life. Practices of justification and critique as triggers of conflicts and sources of agreements are consequently the subjects of analysis. This implies, furthermore, a strong notion of normativity in practice, which reveals a blind spot in current debates in IR. Justification becomes a social practice through which diverging legitimacy claims are tested under conditions of uncertainty. Such a view is conceptually and methodologically relevant for IR scholars interested in contested norms, moral ambiguity, and the fragile character of political reality. Considering Boltanski’s work broadens the empirical scope of practice theory and provides promising new directions for IR theory.
45 citations
TL;DR: In recent years, the use of experimental methodologies has emerged as a central means of evaluating international aid interventions as mentioned in this paper, and randomized control trials (randomized control trials) have been used to evaluate the effectiveness of aid interventions.
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 random...
34 citations
Cites background from "The institution of critique and the..."
...12 For discussions of pragmatic sociology, see C. Browne (2014), Bénatouïl (1999), Celikates (2006) and Wagner (1999)....
[...]
References
More filters
TL;DR: The subject matter of economics might be different from physics, but only in the way that the subject of chemistry or biology is different from economics as mentioned in this paper, and the actual results were presented to us as if they were scientific theories.
Abstract: When I was an undergraduate in Oxford, we were taught economics almost as though it were a natural science. The subject matter of economics might be different from physics, but only in the way that the subject matter of chemistry or biology is different from physics. The actual results were presented to us as if they were scientific theories. So, when we learned that savings equals investment, it was taught in the same tone of voice as one teaches that force equals mass times acceleration. And we learned that rational entrepreneurs sell where marginal cost equals marginal revenue in the way that we once learned that bodies attract in a way that is directly proportional to the product of their mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. At no point was it ever suggested that the reality described by economic theory was dependent on human beliefs and other attitudes in a way that was totally unlike the reality described by physics or chemistry.
639 citations
Book•
18 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The Structure of Critical Theories and Pragmatic Sociology of Critique as discussed by the authors The power of institutions and the necessity of criticique in political regimes of domination is discussed in Section 5.
Abstract: Preface 1 The Structure of Critical Theories 2 Critical Sociology and Pragmatic Sociology of Critique 3 The Power of Institutions 4 The Necessity of Critique 5 Political Regimes of Domination 6 Emancipation in the Pragmatic Sense
437 citations
"The institution of critique and the..." refers background in this paper
...Despite endorsing Claude Lévi-Strauss’s view that myth is able to somewhat reconcile contradictions and make social life work, Boltanski believes that the institution of myths and religions can never entirely succeed in assimilating the ‘world’ (Boltanski 2011; Lévi-Strauss 1980, 2001)....
[...]
...‘No institution’, he argues, ‘can measure up to itself’ (Boltanski 2011: 157)....
[...]
...This is particularly because Boltanski remarks that administrations and organizations ‘refer, if you like, to the means with which institutions must be equipped in order to act in the world of bodies’ (Boltanski 2011: 79)....
[...]
...Similarly, Boltanski and Chiapello contend that capitalism is Boltanski’s assertion that institutions are always incomplete (Boltanski 2011; Boltanski and Chiapello 2005; Castoriadis 1987)....
[...]
...No doubt delimiting categories in this manner is of considerable value to empirical investigations, but it may be one of the reasons why pragmatism has had difficulties, as Boltanski (2011) admits, in developing a critical sociology from its sociology of social actors’ critical practices....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors claim that an institution is any collectively accepted system of rules (procedures, practices) that enable us to create institutional facts, and the typical point of the creation of institutional facts by assigning status functions is to create deontic powers.
Abstract: The author claims that an institution is any collectively accepted system of rules (procedures, practices) that enable us to create institutional facts. These rules typically have the form of X counts as Y in C, where an object, person, or state of affairs X is assigned a special status, the Y status, such that the new status enables the person or object to perform functions that it could not perform solely in virtue of its physical structure, but requires as a necessary condition the assignment of the status. The creation of an institutional fact is, thus, the collective assignment of a status function. The typical point of the creation of institutional facts by assigning status functions is to create deontic powers. So typically when we assign a status function Y to some object or person X we have created a situation in which we accept that a person S who stands in the appropriate relation to X is such that (S has power (S does A)). The whole analysis then gives us a systematic set of relationships between collective intentionality, the assignment of function, the assignment of status functions, constitutive rules, institutional facts, and deontic powers.
371 citations
"The institution of critique and the..." refers background in this paper
...Like John Searle and Castoriadis, Boltanski develops a version of the thesis that institutions enable practices that lead to their consolidation (Searle 2005; Castoriadis 1987)....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present Pathologies of the Social: The Past and Present of Social Philosophy * The Possibility of a Disclosing Critique of Society: The Dialectic of Enlightenment in Light of current Debates in Social Criticism * The Social Dynamics Of Disrespect: On The Location Of Critical Theory Today * Moral Consciousness and Class Domination: Some Problems in the Analysis of Hidden Morality * II. Morality and Recognition * The Other of Justice: Habermas and the Ethical Challenge of Postmodernism.
Abstract: * Contents * I. The Tasks of Social Philosophy * Pathologies of the Social: The Past and Present of Social Philosophy * The Possibility of a Disclosing Critique of Society: The Dialectic of Enlightenment in Light of Current Debates in Social Criticism * The Social Dynamics Of Disrespect: On The Location Of Critical Theory Today * Moral Consciousness and Class Domination: Some Problems in the Analysis of Hidden Morality * II. Morality and Recognition * The Other of Justice: Habermas and the Ethical Challenge of Postmodernism. Between Aristotle and Kant: Recognition and Moral Obligation * Between Justice and Affection: The Family as a Field of Moral Disputes * Love and Morality: On the Moral Content of Emotional Ties * Decentered Autonomy: The Subject After the Fall * III. Problems of Political Philosophy * Is Universalism a Moral Trap? The Presuppositions and Limits of a Politics of Human Rights * Democracy as Reflexive Cooperation: John Dewey and the Theory of Democracy Today * Negative Freedom and Cultural Belonging: An Unhealthy Tension in the Political Philosophy of Isaiah Berlin * Post-traditional Communities: A Conceptual Proposal
358 citations
"The institution of critique and the..." refers background in this paper
...Despite Honneth convincingly demonstrating how struggles for recognition expand moral grammars, his theory has been faulted for the difficulties it has in adequately adjudicating between the normative potential of different expressions of experiences of disrespect (Honneth 2007; Fraser 2003b)....
[...]
330 citations