Showing papers on "Critical theory published in 2020"

Critique of Judgement

Abstract: 'beauty has purport and significance only for human beings, for beings at once animal and rational' In the Critique of Judgement (1790) Kant offers a penetrating analysis of our experience of the beautiful and the sublime, discussing the objectivity of taste, aesthetic disinterestedness, the relation of art and nature, the role of imagination, genius and originality, the limits of representation and the connection between morality and the aesthetic. He also investigates the validity of our judgements concerning the apparent purposiveness of nature with respect to the highest interests of reason and enlightenment. The work profoundly influenced the artists and writers of the classical and romantic period and the philosophy of Hegel and Schelling. It has remained a central point of reference from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche through to phenomenology, hermeneutics, the Frankfurt School, analytical aesthetics and contemporary critical theory. J. C. Meredith's classic translation has been revised in accordance with standard modern renderings and provided with a bilingual glossary. This edition also includes the important 'First Introduction' that Kant originally composed for the work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Philosophy and Critical Theory

Abstract: From the beginning, the Critical Theory of society was constantly involved in philosophical as well as social issues and controversies. At the time of its origin, in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century, philosophy was the most advanced form of consciousness, and by comparison real conditions in Germany were backward. Philosophy thus appears within the economic concepts of materialist theory, each of which is more than an economic concept of the sort employed by the academic discipline of economics. Philosophy thus appears within the economic concepts of materialist theory, each of which is more than an economic concept of the sort employed by the academic discipline of economics. Although philosophy reconciles antitheses in reason, it provides a "reconciliation not in reality, but in the world of ideas." But in its historical forms philosophy also contains insights into human and objective conditions whose truth points beyond previous society and thus cannot be completely reduced to it.

Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory

Abstract: ‘An authoritative analysis of the role of communication in contemporary capitalism and an important contribution to debates about the forms of domination and potentials for liberation in today’s capitalist society.’ — Professor Michael Hardt, Duke University, co-author of the tetralogy Empire, Commonwealth, Multitude, and Assembly ‘A comprehensive approach to understanding and transcending the deepening crisis of communicative capitalism. It is a major work of synthesis and essential reading for anyone wanting to know what critical analysis is and why we need it now more than ever.’ — Professor Graham Murdock, Emeritus Professor, University of Loughborough and co-editor of The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications Communication and Capitalism outlines foundations of a critical theory of communication. Going beyond Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, Christian Fuchs outlines a communicative materialism that is a critical, dialectical, humanist approach to theorising communication in society and in capitalism. The book renews Marxist Humanism as a critical theory perspective on communication and society. The author theorises communication and society by engaging with the dialectic, materialism, society, work, labour, technology, the means of communication as means of production, capitalism, class, the public sphere, alienation, ideology, nationalism, racism, authoritarianism, fascism, patriarchy, globalisation, the new imperialism, the commons, love, death, metaphysics, religion, critique, social and class struggles, praxis, and socialism. Fuchs renews the engagement with the questions of what it means to be a human and a humanist today and what dangers humanity faces today.

Critical Theory: Broadening Our Thinking to Explore the Structural Factors at Play in Health Professions Education.

Abstract: As part of the Philosophy of Science series of Invited Commentaries, this article on critical theory describes the origins of this research paradigm and its key concepts and orientations (ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology, and rigor). The authors frame critical theory as an umbrella term for different theories, including feminism, antiracism, and anticolonialism. They emphasize the structural analysis that critical scholars conduct to uncover and sometimes address the role that social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender factors play in health professions education. They note the importance of acknowledging one's social location when doing critical research and highlight the core values of democracy and egalitarianism that underpin critical research. Methodologically, the authors stress how critical scholars reject singular truths in favor of more nuanced portraits of concepts and events, mobilize inductive approaches over deductive ones, and use critical theory to develop their projects and analyze their data. Following upon this elucidation of critical theory, the authors apply this paradigm to analyze the sample case of Lee, a medical resident who was involved in a medication error. The authors conclude that research conducted in the critical tradition has the potential to transcend individualistic accounts by revealing underlying structural forces that constrain or support individual agency.

Social Psychological Theory as History: Outlining the Critical-Historical Approach to Theory:

Abstract: The mainstream epistemology of social psychology is markedly ahistorical, prioritizing the quantification of processes assumed to be lawful and generalizable. Social psychologists often consider theory to be either a practical tool for summarizing what is known about a problem area and making predictions or a torch that illuminates the counterintuitive causal force underlying a variety of disparate phenomena. I propose a third vision of critical-historical theory. From this perspective, theories should be committed to deep interdisciplinarity and historical validity claims-understanding individual and group experiences as part of historically contingent forces. Theories also should be critical, containing an awareness of the researcher as implicated in the social process and committed to actively improving society. To demonstrate its viability, I review classic works from the history of the discipline that exemplify critical-historical theory and offer concrete implications for theorists interested in employing this approach in their own work.

The task of critique in times of post-truth politics

Abstract: Post-truth politics poses a specific problem for critical theories. The problem is that the relativisation of facts – the claim that knowledge is merely a product of power, history, and perspective – is a core aspect of present-day ideological thinking. Critical theories have been unable to respond to this challenge, because their critique has been directed against the opposite claim, namely the naturalisation of facts. While acknowledging this problem, this article argues that post-truth discourse actually combines relativisation and naturalisation. It does not simply relativise truth, but also naturalises the belief in specific ‘facts’ – notably the belief that ‘conspiracies are behind it all’. Once we recognise the twin character of post-truth, we must reject the view of Bruno Latour and others who have made critique responsible for the crisis. Instead, it then becomes apparent that there are deep and disconcerting similarities between post-truth politics and the totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies of the twentieth century. The task of critique is to confront and counter this resurgent ideology, thereby providing direction and orientation in the struggle for emancipation.

The New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

Abstract: Set against the background of mid-twentieth-century institutional changes analyzed by Jurgen Habermas, we provide an account of new social conditions that compose “the public sphere” in the contemp...

What’s new in the new ideology critique?

Abstract: I argue that contemporary accounts of ideology critique—paradigmatically those advanced by Haslanger, Jaeggi, Celikates, and Stanley—are either inadequate or redundant. The Marxian concept of ideology—a collective epistemic distortion or irrationality that helps maintain bad social arrangements—has recently returned to the forefront of debates in contemporary analytic social philosophy. Ideology critique has similarly emerged as a technique for combating such social ills by remedying those collective epistemic distortions. Ideologies are sets of social meanings or shared understandings. I argue in this paper that because agents must coordinate on them to be mutually intelligible, ideologies, on the fashionable contemporary account, are conventions. They are equilibrium solutions to a particular kind of social coordination problem. The worry is that changing pernicious conventions requires more than the epistemic remedy contemporary critical social theorists prescribe. It also requires overcoming strategic impediments like high first-mover costs. Thus contemporary proponents of ideology critique—the “new ideology critics,” as I’ll call them—face a dilemma. Either their account of social change fails to account for important strategic impediments to social change, in which case it is inadequate, or it incorporates a theory of strategic behavior, and thus merely reinvents the wheel, poorly. It adds nothing to prominent convention-based accounts of social change in the social sciences. More generally, this is an example of a pernicious trend in contemporary critical social theory. Contemporary critical social theorists have abandoned their predecessors’ commitment to engaging with social science, thereby undermining their efforts.

Social Justice Pedagogy for Whom? Developing Privileged Students’ Critical Mathematics Consciousness

Abstract: Increasingly, teachers are using consciousness raising pedagogies such as culturally relevant, responsive, sustaining, and social justice pedagogies. However, little attention has been paid to teachers engaging in this work with students of privileged backgrounds (e.g., white, affluent students) and in mathematics. The present study addresses this gap by examining critical consciousness development with social justice pedagogy focusing on 10 students in one-sixth grade mathematics class in an independent social justice-oriented K-8 school in a large, urban city in the Bay Area, California. Analysis of student interviews, student work, and field note data indicate that eight of the 10 focus students gained critical mathematics consciousness, conceptualized as improving sociopolitical understanding, developing critical civic empathy, and taking action.

Alternative Lifeworlds on the Internet: Habermas and Democratic Distance Education.

Abstract: Current distance education practices can be susceptible to the types of content-heavy, top-down instruction often seen in physical classrooms. These practices are similar to the activities of corpo...

Materialized ideology and environmental problems: The cases of solar geoengineering and agricultural biotechnology:

Abstract: This article expands upon the notion of ideology as a material phenomenon, usually in the form of institutionalized, taken-for-granted practices. It draws on Herbert Marcuse and related thinkers to...

Klafki’s critical-constructive Didaktik and the epistemology of critical thinking

Abstract: What can educators working to develop critical thinking (CT) in their classrooms gain from engaging with the German/Scandinavian tradition of Bildung-centred Didaktik? This article takes up...

Disrupting Colorblind Teacher Education in Computer Science.

Abstract: As new efforts seek to expand computer science education across the globe, there has been a widespread effort to prepare school teachers for teaching computer science to culturally and raci...

Opportunity and Impasse: Social Change and the Limits of International Legal Strategy

Abstract: Abstract A diverse range of actors, from practitioners and academics to civil society groups and activists, appear to see hope in international law for the advancement of their causes. This paper examines whether this optimism is well-founded. It explores whether international law can serve as an agent of social change, and whether it can accommodate radical changes in social order. It begins by exposing a formalist stance that is immanent to much ‘legal activist’ discourse. It then explores links between this mode of jurisprudential thought and idealist epistemology. Drawing from the philosophy of Theodor Adorno, and in particular his notion of ‘identity-thinking’, it uncovers structural connections between formalism, idealism, law, and economy that call into question international law's socially-transformative potential. The perspective advanced in this paper falls somewhere between the polarities of opportunity and impasse, seeking to acknowledge the importance of legal strategies in safeguarding the disenfranchised, while remaining alive to their potential dangers and limitations.

Using a multiliteracies approach to foster critical and creative pedagogies for adult learners

Abstract: Drawing upon a pilot study and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight research study to explore how a multiliteracies framework may inform more critical and creative peda...

The Critique of Real Abstraction: From the Critical Theory of Society to the Critique of Political Economy and Back Again

Abstract: This contribution maps the development of the critique of real abstraction from its origins to the present. The first section discusses the ambiguous status of the critique of real abstraction in Marx. The second section provides an overview of the development of the critique of real abstraction as a critical theory of capitalist society in Sohn-Rethel, Adorno and Lefebvre. The third section looks at their reception in the New Reading of Marx and the New Reading’s systematization of the theory of real abstraction in the critique of political economy. The fourth section compares the new theories of real abstraction in Toscano/Bhandar, Endnotes and Moore with Lotz and Bonefeld. The conclusion points to several ways the new reading of the critical theory of real abstraction can be furthered developed.

Social Science Education in Russia: Between Civic Responsibility and the Reality of Life.

Abstract: The report identifies the main contradictions in teaching social science in modern Russia in the context of the implementation of the idea of civic education and the formation of civic responsibility. The results of the comparative analysis of the basic federal documents of social science education, textbooks, sociological surveys and supporting materials for the examination in social science are described. It is shown that despite the declared ambitious goals of creating civic responsibility, critical consciousness and practical competencies, the course of social science continues to remain abstract and does not fully correspond to the social realities in Russia and the world.

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work

Abstract: The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work traverses new territory by providing a cutting-edge overview of the work of classic and contemporary theorists, in a way that expands their application and utility in social work education and practice; thus, providing a bridge between critical theory, philosophy, and social work. Each chapter showcases the work of a specific critical educational, philosophical, and/or social theorist including: Henry Giroux, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, Herbert Marcuse, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Joan Tronto, Iris Marion Young, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and many others, to elucidate the ways in which their key pedagogic concepts can be applied to specific aspects of social work education and practice. The text exhibits a range of research-based approaches to educating social work practitioners as agents of social change. It provides a robust, and much needed, alternative paradigm to the technique-driven ‘conservative revolution’ currently being fostered by neoliberalism in both social work education and practice. The volume will be instructive for social work educators who aim to teach for social change, by assisting students to develop counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and agency, and reflecting on the pedagogic role of social work practice more widely. The volume holds relevance for both postgraduate and undergraduate/qualifying social work and human services courses around the world.

A contribution to the critique of worthless education: between critical pedagogy and welfare sociology

Abstract: The article deals with changes in the area of education, especially at the higher level, after the so-called neoliberal turn of the 1980s. In order to explore the transformation of the sphere of ed...

La “Teorí­a Crí­tica del Discurso” como herramienta metodológica para la investigación en teorí­a social

Abstract: In this work we will give shape to a particular methodology for social theory inquiry called "Critical Theory of Discourse". This methodology inscribes itself in the recently opened discussion around the modes and techniques of theoretical research in the social sciences, and it results from a combination between Conceptual History, Critical Theory and Discourse Analysis. We will study most specially the antecedent of Critical Discourse Analysis or CDA by Norman Fairclough and Ruth Wodak, and we will go through the contributions of key authors of critical sociological theory such as Max Horkheimer, Charles Wright Mills, Herbert Marcuse, Alvin Gouldner and Jurgen Habermas.

Revolution and Disenchantment : Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation

Abstract: The Arab Revolutions that began in 2011 reignited interest in the question of theory and practice, imbuing it with a burning political urgency. In Revolution and Disenchantment Fadi A. Bardawil redescribes for our present how an earlier generation of revolutionaries, the 1960s Arab New Left, addressed this question. Bardawil excavates the long-lost archive of the Marxist organization Socialist Lebanon and its main theorist, Waddah Charara, who articulated answers in their political practice to fundamental issues confronting revolutionaries worldwide: intellectuals as vectors of revolutionary theory; political organizations as mediators of theory and praxis; and nonemancipatory attachments as impediments to revolutionary practice. Drawing on historical and ethnographic methods and moving beyond familiar reception narratives of Marxist thought in the postcolony, Bardawil engages in "fieldwork in theory" that analyzes how theory seduces intellectuals, cultivates sensibilities, and authorizes political practice. Throughout, Bardawil underscores the resonances and tensions between Arab intellectual traditions and Western critical theory and postcolonial theory, deftly placing intellectuals from those traditions into a much-needed conversation.

Conceptualising animal exploitation in capitalism: Getting terminology straight:

Abstract: In the last three decades, the interchange between Marxism and critical human–animalism has gratifyingly picked up. Scholars use Marxist categories to analyse and criticise the exploitation and opp...

Reflections on Importing Critical Race Theory Into Social Work: The State of Social Work Literature and Students’ Voices

Abstract: Critical race theory (CRT) has recently been imported into social work knowledge and included in the title or search term of 20 published social work studies, but little is known about how it is im...

Marxist Theories of Law Past and Present: A Meditation Occasioned by the 25th Anniversary of Law, Labor, and Ideology

Abstract: Capitalist society seems particularly disorderly of late, a disorder contributing to the beginnings of what we hope will be a renewal of Marxist legal scholarship. This essay reviews some key developments in Marxist analysis of law from the 1970s to the present. Over all, our essay traces a back and forth between Marxists’ emphasis on theoretical inquiry on the one hand and empirical and historical work inquiry on the other. We argue that Christopher Tomlins’s 1993 book, Law, Labor, and Ideology in the Early American Republic, remains salient for thinking about ways to combine Marxist theoretic and historical work to understand the role of law in capitalist social formations and that Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s recent book Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory offers complementary resources for a renewal in Marxist legal thought. We conclude that further development of Marxist legal thought will require a mix of both empirical and theoretical innovations, and we identify political questions that Marxists will need to address.

Critical Religious Pluralism in Higher Education: A Social Justice Framework to Support Religious Diversity

Abstract: This text presents a new critical theory addressing religious diversity, Christian religious privilege, and Christian hegemony in the United States. It meets a growing and urgent need in our society—the need to bring together religiously diverse ways of thinking and being in the world, and eventually to transform our society through intentional pluralism. The primary goal of Critical Religious Pluralism Theory (CRPT) is to acknowledge the central roles of religious privilege, oppression, hegemony, and marginalization in maintaining inequality between Christians and non-Christians (including the nonreligious) in the United States. Following analysis of current literature on religious, secular, and spiritual identities within higher education, and in-depth discussion of critical theories on other identity elements, the text presents seven tenets of CRPT alongside seven practical guidelines for utilizing the theory to combat the very inequalities it exposes. For the first time, a critical theory will address directly the social impacts of religious diversity and its inherent benefits and complications in the United States. Critical Religious Pluralism in Higher Education will appeal to scholars, researchers, and graduate students in higher education, as well as critical theorists from other disciplines.