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Showing papers on "Critical theory published in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Paris and Alim as discussed by the authors argue that CSP seeks to perpetuate and foster linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling and as a needed response to demographic and social change.
Abstract: In this article, Django Paris and H. Samy Alim use the emergence of Paris's concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) as the foundation for a respectful and productive critique of previous formulations of asset pedagogies. Paying particular attention to asset pedagogy's failures to remain dynamic and critical in a constantly evolving global world, they offer a vision that builds on the crucial work of the past toward a CSP that keeps pace with the changing lives and practices of youth of color. The authors argue that CSP seeks to perpetuate and foster linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling and as a needed response to demographic and social change. Building from their critique, Paris and Alim suggest that CSP's two most important tenets are a focus on the plural and evolving nature of youth identity and cultural practices and a commitment to embracing youth culture's counterhegemonic potential while maintaining a clear-eyed critique of the ways in ...

1,064 citations


Book
01 Feb 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the intellectual and social context surrounding research on alternatives to western epistemologies and contrast the sociology of emergence and absences of knowledge, practices and agents, and suggest that the epistemology of the South are based on the ecology of knowledge and intercultural translation.
Abstract: This paper examines the intellectual and social context surrounding research on alternatives to western epistemologies. The paper outlines the challenges facing the western critical tradition – the old and the new; the loss of critical terms; the ghostly relation between critical theory and social change; the end of endless capitalism; the end of endless colonialism. The paper contrasts “the sociology of emergence”, i.e. the increase of knowledge, practices and agents, with “the sociology of absences”, i.e. forms of non-existence (e.g. “the ignored”, “the residual”, “the inferior”, “the local”, “the unproductive”). Finally, in considering new epistemological perspectives, the paper suggests that the epistemologies of the South are based on “the ecology of knowledge” and “intercultural translation”.

256 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that Critical Social Theory of Frankfurt School origins does stand guilty of a failure to develop a body of valiant critique of the political economy of neoliberal capitalism in the course of the latter's ascent in the 1980s and 1990s.
Abstract: There is no crisis of capitalism, only a crisis of critique. I claim that Critical Social Theory of Frankfurt School origins does stand guilty of a failure to develop a body of valiant critique of the political economy of neoliberal capitalism in the course of the latter’s ascent in the 1980s and 1990s. The first part of my analysis addresses the crisis of capitalism as a distinct object of critique, in order to identify the direction a critique of contemporary capitalism is to take. The second part examines the analytical equipment at Critical Theory’s disposal for undertaking such an endeavor. Within an inventory of some of the key achievements of the tradition both in terms of its object and method of critique, some conceptual deficiencies are identified – namely, the reduced attention to what I describe as “systemic domination,” and the diminished reliance on a critique of the political economy of capitalism. The third part adumbrates a proposal for recasting Critical Theory by way of (a) redefining the normative content of emancipation; (b) effecting a realist-pragmatic turn within the communicative turn; (c) bringing the critique of political economy back into critical social theory.

148 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examine the racially hostile environment of U.S. public schooling towards Black males and demonstrate how power operates within schools alongside racism, racial profiling, and gender stereotypes to criminalize Black males.
Abstract: The goal of this article is to examine the racially hostile environment of U.S. public schooling towards Black males. Drawing on the work of Foucault (Discipline and punish. The birth of the prison, Penguin Books, London, 1977; Michel Foucault: beyond structuralism and hermeneutics, The Harvester Press, Brighton, 1982) regarding the construction of society’s power relations and Bourdieu’s (Power and ideology in education, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977; Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. Greenwood Press, New York, 1986; The logic of practice. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1990) work concerning how beliefs are established, this article demonstrates how power operates within schools alongside racism, racial profiling, and gender stereotypes to criminalize Black males. Additionally, the utilization of the theoretical lenses of populational reasoning (Popkewitz in Struggling for the soul: the politics of schooling and the construction of the teacher, Teachers College Press, New York, 1998), conceptual narrative (Somers and Gibson in Social theory and the politics of identity, Blackwell, Cambridge, 1994), and critical race theory (Delgado and Stefancic 2001) links the common narrative and the cultural memory of Black males to the death of Trayvon Martin and the treatment of Black males in schools.

93 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Glaserian grounded theory methodology contains elements of positivism, hermeneutics, and pragmatism as mentioned in this paper, and it can be seen as a combination of the three perspectives.
Abstract: Glaserian grounded theory methodology, which has been widely adopted as a scientific methodology in recent decades, has been variously characterised as “hermeneutic” and “positivist.” This commentary therefore takes a different approach to characterising grounded theory by undertaking a comprehensive analysis of: (a) the philosophical paradigms of positivism, hermeneutics, and pragmatism; and (b) the general philosophical questions of the aims of science and the issue of choosing a scientific methodology. The commentary then seeks to position grounded theory methodology in terms of these philosophical perspectives. The study concludes that grounded theory methodology contains elements of positivism, hermeneutics, and pragmatism. In coming to this conclusion, the study clarifies the degree to which these three perspectives are found within Glaserian grounded theory methodology. Key Words: Grounded Theory, Positivism, Hermeneutics, Pragmatism.

88 citations


Book
22 Jul 2014
TL;DR: The early Marx called for the "realization of philosophy" through revolution as discussed by the authors, a view elaborated in the later praxis perspectives of Lukacs and the Frankfurt School These thinkers argue that fundamental philosophical problems are, in reality, social problems abstractly conceived.
Abstract: The early Marx called for the "realization of philosophy" through revolution Revolution thus became a critical concept for Marxism, a view elaborated in the later praxis perspectives of Lukacs and the Frankfurt School These thinkers argue that fundamental philosophical problems are, in reality, social problems abstractly conceived Originally published as Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory, The Philosophy of Praxis traces the evolution of this argument in the writings of Marx, Lukacs, Adorno and Marcuse This reinterpretation of the philosophy of praxis shows its continuing relevance to contemporary discussions in Marxist political theory, continental philosophy and science and technology studies

68 citations



Book
08 May 2014
TL;DR: The Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy as mentioned in this paper is a critical social theory of political economy and its application in the context of social and economic systems, as well as its application to political economy.
Abstract: Dedication Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy Section I: On the Critique of Political Economy as a Critical Social Theory 2. Political Economy and Social Constitution: On the Meaning of Critique 3. Society as Subject and Society as Object: On Social Praxis Section II: Value: On Social Wealth and Class 4. Capital and Labour: Primitive Accumulation and the Force of Value 5. Class and Struggle: On the false Society 6. Time is Money: On Abstract Labour Section III: Capital, World Market and State 7. State, World Market and Society 8. On the State of Political Economy: Political Form and the Force of Law Section IV Anti-Capitalism: Theology and Negative Practice 9. Anti-Capitalism and the Elements of Antisemitism: On Theology and Real Abstractions 10. Conclusion: On the Elements of Subversion and Negative Reason Selected Bibliography Index

54 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Fayaz Chagani1
TL;DR: This article assess the merits of posthumanism for critical scholarship and argue that posthumanist thinking offers not only analytical but normative advantages over conventional and even Marxian approaches, and that a critical political ecology would best be served by preserving a tension between humanist and post-humanist methods.
Abstract: "Posthumanist" theories have become increasingly popular among scholars in political ecology and other fields in the human sciences. The hope is that they will improve our grasp of relations between humans and various nonhumans and, in the process, offer the means to recompose the "social" and the "natural" domains. In this paper, I assess the merits of posthumanisms for critical scholarship. Looking specifically at the work of Bruno Latour (including his latest book, An inquiry into modes of existence) and Donna Haraway, I argue that posthumanist thinking offers not only analytical but normative advantages over conventional and even Marxian approaches. But these newer frameworks contain their own ethico-political limitations and, to the extent that they are useful for addressing conditions of injustice, they continue to depend upon conceptual resources from their precursors. For this reason, a critical political ecology would best be served by preserving a tension between humanist and posthumanist methods. Keywords: posthumanism, critical theory, political ecology, human-nonhuman relations, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway

54 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Theodor W. Adorno as mentioned in this paper reconstructed, and partially defended, Adorno's views on theory and praxis in Germany's 1960s in 11 theses, and argued that people in the 1960s have tried to change the world in various ways; the point was to interpret it.
Abstract: Theodor W. Adorno inspired much of Germany’s 1960s student movement, but he came increasingly into conflict with this movement about the practical implications of his critical theory. Others – including his friend and colleague Herbert Marcuse – also accused Adorno of a quietism that is politically objectionable and in contradiction with his own theory. In this article, I reconstruct, and partially defend, Adorno’s views on theory and (political) praxis in Germany’s 1960s in 11 theses. His often attacked and maligned stance during the 1960s is based on his analysis of these historical circumstances. Put provocatively, his stance consists in the view that people in the 1960s have tried to change the world, in various ways; the point – at that time – was to interpret it.

49 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual framework designed to facilitate responsive global engagement for professionals such as speech-language pathologists, who are increasingly serving diverse populations around the world, is presented, and examples of how the conceptual framework could be infused into research questions, university course content, clinical services or community outreach are provided.
Abstract: The field of speech–language pathology needs a conceptual framework to guide the provision of services in a globalized world. Proposed in this article is a conceptual framework designed to facilitate responsive global engagement for professionals such as speech–language pathologists, who are increasingly serving diverse populations around the world. A set of concepts associated with Critical Social Theory is defined and then organized into a statement. This proposed conceptual framework could be useful for educating speech–language pathologists, educators, and related professionals to provide relevant services across the globe. Examples of how the conceptual framework could be infused into research questions, university course content, clinical services, or community outreach are provided.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs mainstream constructivists' inclinations toward what I argue are sociological accounts of norms, in which the question of the latter's justification is comprehensively sidelined, and they suggest that despite some important limitations of its own, Critical Theory is in a better position to address "isses" and "oughts" than constructivism's readings of it would suggest.
Abstract: The social theoretic turn inaugurated under the rise of constructivism in International Relations has, among other themes, created a much-enlarged space for treating norms as efficacious explanatory variables in analyses of world politics. In this article, I reconstruct mainstream constructivists’ inclinations toward what I argue are sociological accounts of norms, in which the question of the latter’s justification is comprehensively sidelined. I initially show how constructivists’ strategy of delineating their approaches from Critical Theory and post-structural analyses sustains social theoretic commitments, which compound this problem. In the second part of the article, I focus on Richard Price’s programmatic attempt to reconcile the constructivist achievements in empirical research on the efficacy of norms with normative theorizing. The idea of building a bridge from ‘isses’ to ‘oughts’ labors, as I demonstrate, from the outset under construction problems, which cannot be resolved on the premises from which Price seeks to operate. Concluding this part, I consider the possibility of supplementing Price’s account with consequentialist normative theory, and demonstrate that this would incur further problems for a normative theoretic framework for the study of world politics. In the final part, I outline key themes of Critical Theory with the aim of addressing some persistent misunderstandings about its scope, social theoretic outlook, and normative commitments. Linking back to the critical appraisal of mainstream constructivism’s norm-sociological commitments, I suggest that despite some important limitations of its own, Critical Theory is in a better position to address ‘isses’ and ‘oughts’ than constructivists’ readings of it would suggest.

Book
23 Jul 2014
TL;DR: The concept of anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice have long been embedded in social work, but whereas once these may have offered an alternative critique of individual and societal relations, they have long since become part of mainstream thinking and have lost their political edge.
Abstract: The concepts of anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice have long been embedded in social work, but whereas once these may have offered an alternative critique of individual and societal relations, they have long since become part of mainstream thinking and have lost their political edge. This book kick-starts an overdue debate by rethinking how social work understands the complexity of human interactions and experiences. In so doing, it provides an opportunity for readers to engage with fundamental concepts such as diversity, equality and social justice. It uses the ideas of Foucault in which to examine a range of concepts associated with these. The book begins by evaluating the contribution which anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive theories have made before going on to examine how social work can build on its historical commitment to working with marginalised groups and move forward in its thinking. Chapters cover a wide range of practice contexts, including disability, families, and asylum seekers, and are supplemented by an engaging ‘key ideas for practice’ feature to highlight the connections between theory and practice. This book provides fresh new perspectives for students, drawn from critical social theory and on the work of practitioners and researchers who want to proactively engage with issues of justice and equality in social work.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that librarians were versed not only in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, but also in poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, and postcolonialism.
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate levels of familiarity that librarians have with critical theory, to determine the extent to which it informs professional practices, and to examine how the social justice issues related to critical theory inform the practices of librarians who are unfamiliar with it. A survey found that librarians were versed not only in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, but also in poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, and postcolonialism. Many librarians, lacking familiarity with critical theory, were also shown to be concerned with social justice and these issues significantly affect these librarians’ professional practices. Based on these results, the authors propose the plausibility of incorporating more critical theory into library and information science programs.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors discusses critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a framework for a critical agenda in the sociology of religion and proposes a framework through which to analyse the discursive construction, reproduction and transformation of inequality in the field of religion.
Abstract: This article discusses critical discourse analysis CDA) as a framework for a critical agenda in the sociology of religion. CDA uniquely brings together discursive and critical (broadly Marxist) approaches to religion, both of which have been underrepresented in current mainstream scholarship. The article argues that a CDA perspective has a lot to offer to the sociology of religion both by sensitizing scholars to the significance of discourse in creating hegemonic understandings of religion and religions in everyday social interaction dominated by the media; and by offering a framework through which to analyse the discursive construction, reproduction and transformation of inequality in the field of religion. The article discusses the concept of discourse and its different meanings, examines what being ‘critical’ means in the context of discourse analysis and constructs a framework for doing practical CDA. Finally, CDA is discussed as a foundation for a critical sociology of religion.


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989b; 1962) is an immensely rich and influential book that has had a major impact in a variety of disciplines and has also received detailed critique and generated extremely productive discussions of liberal democracy, civil society, public life, social changes in the twentieth century and other issues.
Abstract: Jurgen Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989b; 1962) is an immensely rich and influential book that has had a major impact in a variety of disciplines. It has also received detailed critique and generated extremely productive discussions of liberal democracy, civil society, public life, social changes in the twentieth century, and other issues. Few books of the second half of the twentieth century have been so seriously discussed in so many different fields and continue, more than 50 years after its initial publication in 1962, to create controversy and insight.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the position, mode, and form of critique/criticality of learner-centred education and demonstrate that Ranciere's concepts of equality and dissensus may empower those seen as margi...
Abstract: “Learner-centred” and “teacher as facilitator,” among the most influential concepts (re)shaping education over the past decades, are often represented as bringing democratic participation, equality, and empowerment to learners and helping transform and liberate societies. At the same time, these concepts are constructed in binary terms with “teacher-centred” and “teacher as authority” projecting the two ends as being mutually exclusive. Drawing on data collected through interviews and scholarly works from teachers teaching Humanities and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in Asian and English-speaking Western universities, this article examines their positionings, mode, and form of critique/criticality of learner-centred education. It demonstrates in what ways equality as the starting point (Ranciere) is not embedded in how learner-centred education has largely been promoted in these contexts. As well, while Ranciere’s concepts of equality and dissensus may empower those seen as margi...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The posthumanist turn in critical theory comprises efforts to recognize and analyze the interdependence of human existence with non-human entities, including other animals, spaces, and technologies.
Abstract: The ‘posthumanist turn’ in critical theory comprises efforts to recognize and analyze the interdependence of human existence with non-human entities, including other animals, spaces, and technologies. Scholarship aligned to and debating posthumanism pertains to public health, but has yet to be clearly articulated for a public health audience. This commentary and an appended glossary illustrate the relevance of these ideas for enhancing critical theory in public health.

01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the theoretical proposals by Alexander Mitscherlich and Sigmund Freud, who both defend a specific concept of "social pathologies" or "diseases" based on psychoanalytical insights.
Abstract: Though the idea of “social pathologies” or “diseases” of a whole society has been quite common since Rousseau`s Second Discourse and especially prominent within the tradition of critical theory, it is not really clear who precisely is proposed to have fallen ill here in the first place. Is it only some sufficient number of individual persons, is it the collective understood as a macro-subject, or is it the “society” itself as having been encroached upon by a particular disorganization of its social institutions in their functional efficiency to such an extent that one can confidently speak of a distinctively social “disease”? For all three alternative attributions—i.e., the sporadic individuals with the total amount of their illnesses, the collective with its own particular clinical syndrome, and the society itself as fallen ill—sufficient instances can be found in the corresponding literature. In order to find a way out of these conceptual perplexities lying at the very heart of this way of talking, I deal with the theoretical proposals by Alexander Mitscherlich and Sigmund Freud, who both defend a specific concept of “social pathologies” or “diseases” based on psychoanalytical insights. The result of my critical reconstruction will be that only an understanding of the society as an organic entity allows a nonreductive use of the idea of “social pathologies”.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The first systemic attempt to capture Peter McLaren's ideas about the relationships between critical revolutionary pedagogy and virtuality is presented in this article, where the authors introduce the main problems with educational postmodernism, explain Peter's return towards the Marxist-humanist trajectory, and address contemporary challenges to Marx's dialectical thought.
Abstract: This conversation is the first systemic attempt to capture Peter McLaren's ideas about the relationships between critical revolutionary pedagogy and virtuality. It introduces the main problems with educational postmodernism, explains Peter's return towards the Marxist-humanist trajectory, and addresses contemporary challenges to Marx's dialectical thought. It analyses global changes in the structure of production, and juxtaposes the mass society shaped by one-way media such as television with the network society shaped by bi-directional communication powered by the Internet. The conversation reveals critical potentials of ecopedagogy at the intersections between education and information and communication technologies and analyses the main messages from Ivan Illich. It explores the main features of the emerging digital cultures, identifies underlying values and ideologies, and links them to the divisions between the global South and the global North. It analyses distinct features of contemporary youth mov...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the disciplinary tension between the fields of psychoanalysis and anthropology and the emergence of a "psychoanalytic anthropology" which began in the 1920s and lasted through the 1950s.
Abstract: In light of the recent emphasis on social and cultural factors in psychoanalytic theory and practice, this article will elaborate earlier attempts to bridge psychoanalysis and the study of culture. I begin by considering the disciplinary tension between the fields of psychoanalysis and anthropology and the emergence of a “psychoanalytic anthropology,” which began in the 1920s and lasted through the 1950s. I then turn to the works of Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm, who developed an approach known as “cultural psychoanalysis.” I suggest that Sullivan and Fromm anticipate today's sociocultural turn in psychoanalysis and that their work on culture and its role in psychological development and experience continues to be relevant. Rather than embracing a social or cultural determinism, Sullivan and Fromm focus on the interaction between culture and the person, thus creating an “integrationist” approach. Sullivan and Fromm develop a broad conception of culture that encompasses a critique of social ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an understanding of critical international theory (CIT) as an historical rather than philosophical mode of knowledge is proposed, based on a longer intellectual heritage that extends from Renaissance humanism and passes through Absolutist historiography before reaching Enlightenment civil histories.
Abstract: This article proposes an understanding of critical international theory (CIT) as an historical rather than philosophical mode of knowledge. To excavate this historical mode of theorizing it offers an alternative account of CIT’s intellectual sources. While most accounts of critical international theory tend to focus on inheritances from Kant, Marx and Gramsci, or allude in general terms to debts to the Frankfurt School and the Enlightenment, this is not always the case. Robert Cox, for example, has repeatedly professed intellectual debts to realism and historicism. The argument advanced here builds on Cox by situating CIT in a longer intellectual heritage that extends from Renaissance humanism and passes through Absolutist historiography before reaching Enlightenment civil histories, including Vico’s history of civil institutions. The critical element in this intellectual heritage was the formation of a secular political historicism critically disposed to metaphysical claims based on moral philosophies. By recovering this neglected inheritance of criticism, we can articulate not only a critical theory to rival problem-solving theories, but propose a conception of theory as a historical mode of knowledge that rivals philosophical modes yet remains critical by questioning prevailing intellectual assumptions in International Relations theory.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the socio-cultural structures and forces that influence behaviour, shape and constrain these views, drawing on the works of Max Weber, Georg Simmel and Barbara Adam.
Abstract: Attempts to drive change and reform of the UK construction industry have been an ongoing concern for numerous stakeholders, both in government and across industry, for years. The issue is a seemingly perennially topical one which shows little sign of abating. Scholarly analyses of the reform agenda have tended to adopt a Critical Theory perspective. Such an approach, however, lacks a certain nuance and perhaps only reveals one layer of social reality. What is arguably lacking is a more fundamental exposition concerning the historical, social and cultural explanatory forces at play. While it is illuminating to expose vested interests, ideology and power, what has led to the development of various views? How have they come to achieve such high accord in discussions? Drawing on the works of Max Weber, Georg Simmel and Barbara Adam, this paper seeks to develop a broader theoretical lens. It considers the wider socio-cultural structures and forces that influence behaviour, shape and constrain these views. This...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conceptualized "algorithmic ideology" as a valuable tool to understand and critique corporate search engines in the context of wider socio-political developments, and showed how capitalist value systems manifest in search technology, how they spread through algorithmic logics and how they are stabilized in society.
Abstract: This article conceptualizes “algorithmic ideology” as a valuable tool to understand and critique corporate search engines in the context of wider socio-political developments. Drawing on critical theory it shows how capitalist value-systems manifest in search technology, how they spread through algorithmic logics and how they are stabilized in society. Following philosophers like Althusser, Marx and Gramsci it elaborates how content providers and users contribute to Google’s capital accumulation cycle and exploitation schemes that come along with it. In line with contemporary mass media and neoliberal politics they appear to be fostering capitalism and its “commodity fetishism” (Marx). It further reveals that the capitalist hegemony has to be constantly negotiated and renewed. This dynamic notion of ideology opens up the view for moments of struggle and counter-actions. “Organic intellectuals” (Gramsci) can play a central role in challenging powerful actors like Google and their algorithmic ideology. To pave the way towards more democratic information technology, however, requires more than single organic intellectuals. Additional obstacles need to be conquered, as I finally discuss.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors seek to understand moments of crisis vis-a-vis critique as a key feature of critical social theorizing, at a time when ideas of crisis and critique are at the forefront of public discourse.
Abstract: At a time when ideas of crisis and critique are at the forefront of public discourse, this article seeks to understand moments of crisis vis-a-vis critique as a key feature of critical social theor...

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2014
TL;DR: It is argued that literary forms of reading and writing can be useful in both questioning and reframing scientific writing and design agendas.
Abstract: Literary criticism places fictional work in historical, social and psychological contexts to offer insights about the way that texts are produced and consumed. Critical theory offers a range of strategies for analysing what a text says and just as importantly, what it leaves unsaid. Literary analyses of scientific writing can also produce insights about how research agendas are framed and addressed. This paper provides three readings of a seminal ubiquitous computing scenario by Marc Weiser. Three approaches from literary and critical theory are demonstrated in deconstructive, psychoanalytic and feminist readings of the scenario. The deconstructive reading suggests that alongside the vision of convenient and efficient ubiquitous computing is a complex set of fears and anxieties that the text cannot quite subdue. A psychoanalytic reading considers what the scenario is asking us to desire and identifies the dream of surveillance without intrusion. A final feminist reading discusses gender and collapsing distinctions between public and private, office and home, family and work life. None of the readings are suggested as the final truth of what Weiser was "really" saying. Rather they articulate a set of issues and concerns that might frame design agendas differently. The scenario is then re-written in two pastiches that draw on source material with very different visions of ubiquitous computing. The Sal scenario is first rewritten in the style of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In this world, technology is broken, design is poor and users are flawed, fallible and vulnerable. The second rewrites the scenarios in the style of Philip K Dick's novel Ubik. This scenario serves to highlight what is absent in Weiser's scenario and indeed most design scenarios: money. The three readings and two pastiches underline the social conflict and struggle more often elided or ignored in the stories told in ubicomp literature. It is argued that literary forms of reading and writing can be useful in both questioning and reframing scientific writing and design agendas.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Theories emanating from critical social theory, supported, in part, by new museology scholars (e.g., Sherman and Rogoff 1994; Vergo 1989) have, in the last few decades, called for a more critical...
Abstract: Theories emanating from critical social theory, supported, in part, by “new museology” scholars (e.g., Sherman and Rogoff 1994; Vergo 1989) have, in the last few decades, called for a more critical...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the possibilities of philosophical pragmatism for critical theory in urban studies are explored, pointing to the philosophical connections between pragmaticism and the mainstay of urban studies - Marxism.
Abstract: This article explores the possibilities of philosophical pragmatism for critical theory in urban studies. It points to the philosophical connections between pragmatism and the mainstay of critical theory in urban studies - Marxism. The article suggests how these philosophical roots as well as contemporary developments of pragmatism in social science (and in critical theory) open out the terrain of critical urban studies to make it more pluralist and democratic, theoretically and politically. The article concludes by looking at some of the consequences of this pragmatic turn for critical urban theory.