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Critical theory
About: Critical theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5372 publications have been published within this topic receiving 164765 citations.
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68 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the role that dialogue plays within Jurgen Habermas's work in formulating a critical theory of international relations and question whether the dialogue has been useful in providing new conceptual and methodological tools to analyse international politics and in inspiring new research agendas in IR.
Abstract: It is now more than twenty years since Jurgen Habermas's work was first referred to in International Relations (IR) theory. Along with many other continental philosophers and social theorists, Habermas was initially mobilised in the critique of positivism, and in particular neorealism, in IR theory. As such, the interest in Habermas and IR must be located in the first instance within the context of the fourth debate. This Forum section of the Review provides us with the opportunity to take stock and ask whether the dialogue between Habermas and IR has, thus far, been useful in providing new conceptual and methodological tools to analyse international politics and in inspiring new research agendas in IR. We also ask whether the role that dialogue plays within Habermas's work has been useful in formulating a critical theory of international relations.
68 citations
Book•
08 Jan 1991
TL;DR: Benhabib and Cornell as discussed by the authors discuss the case of Habermas and gender in the context of critical theory and argue that critical theory is critical about critical theory, not about gender.
Abstract: 1. Introduction: Beyond the Politics of Gender: Seyla Benhabib and Drucilla Cornell. 2. Feminism and Marx: Integrating Kinship with the Economic: Linda Nicholson. 3. Whata s Critical about Critical Theory? -- The Case of Habermas and Gender: Nancy Fraser. 4. Impartiality and the Civic Public: Some Implications of Feminist Critiques of Moral and Political Theory: Iris Marion Young. 5. The Generalized and the Concrete Other: The Kohlberg--Gilligan Controversy and Feminist Theory: Seyla Benhabib. 6. Women, Success, and Civil Society: Submission to, or Subversion of, the Achievement Principle: Maria Markus. 7. Disciplining Women: Michel Foucault and the Power of Feminist Discourse: Isaac D. Balbus. 8. Variations on Sex and Gender: Beauvoir, Witting, and Foucault: Judith Butler. 9. Feminism, Negativity, Intersubjectivity: Drucilla Cornell and Adam Thurschwell. Notes on Contributors.
68 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the meanings of outdoor experiences and how they are used in the context of critical outdoor education, and how these meanings are used by outdoor education educators.
Abstract: Experience is at the historical heart of outdoor education, caring for the environment/nature is a new moral imperative for 'critical' outdoor education, yet the activity basis of the outdoor/nature experience/imperative and the discourse(s) in which they function are rarely examined. To rectify this oversight, different constructions of critical outdoor education are contrasted to highlight the potency of the ecopolitic and (socio-)environmental ethic embodied in each construction. The essay concludes reconstructively with an elaboration of some critical dimensions of outdoor education. The paper invites 'reflective' and 'critical' outdoor/experiential educators to scrutinize the meanings they give to 'experience', how they construct it pedagogically in and through selected activities in certain environments and how, in turn, there are individual, social and ecological consequences for the 'experiencer', (outdoor) education's role in constituting such subjectivities and, subsequently, how 'inner', 'social' and 'outer' natures are constructed, often in contradiction. Introduction The 'postmodern' discourse of 'critical' outdoor education in Australia has recently been broadened by a number of essays that, in different ways, examine or challenge the field's educational assumptions and aspirations. Care for the environment, for example, is a focus. The term 'culture' is also prominent in this critical discourse that seems to have distanced itself from the 'social' equity and justice concerns of 'modern' critical theory (Martin, 1999, p. 464). This critical discourse also appears to have non-problematically imported from other cultures the 'deep' imperative for living in harmony with the environment while rehearsing various deconstructions of a range of cultural myths associated educationally with the socalled 'ecological crisis' (Bowers, 1987, 1993). Criticisms, presumably of Australian culture and its historical development and educational institutions are, in general, directed at the dominance of western, anthropocentric, positivist, patriarchal, industrial, progressive and dualistic thinking. Culture, it seems, in both Australia and the Pacific North-West of the USA, from where Bowers is writing, is at odds with nature and its care. The trend to 'cultural criticism' in outdoor education in Australia mirrors broader academic developments in the Humanities and - Social Sciences, including educational theory. Yet, despite the many vantage points available for examining the formative development of critical outdoor education, the infamous exchanges between Bowers (1991a, b, c) and the critical theorist of education Peter McLaren (1991) and feminist theorist of education Maxine Greene are not acknowledged. Nor are the various critiques of 'deep ecology' in environmental philosophy, social and feminist theory that have come from various parts of the (western) world, at least (Beck, 1995; Biehl & Staudenmaier, 1995; Ferry, 1995; Heller, 1999; Salleh, 1993; van Wyck, 1997). These 'lacks' point to a number of conceptual problems with practical consequences in the emerging culturally critical discourse of outdoor education in Australia. As might be expected, the study of culture is a dynamic, as has recently been demonstrated in Roger Sandall's (2001) pro-(western)-civilization critique of the relativism of what he calls 'the culture cult'. Writing in Australia, about Australia and New Zealand, Sandall, a culturally conservative anthropologist, argues amongst a litany of complaints that the 'romantic primitivism' associated with the culture cult has ushered in the phenomenon of 'designer tribalism' to the 'new age' practices and discourses of some disaffected segments of contemporary postmodern society. These include radical, mystical and spiritual elements of the environmental movement, of which critical outdoor education may be a candidate for membership. From the 'other' side of politics, the 'leftist' German critical theorist Jurgen Habermas (1989) differentiates between 'old', 'new' and 'young' conservativism in cultural criticism. …
67 citations
01 Aug 2011
TL;DR: The critique is often that political theory is too ahistorical, abstract and removed from the political reality theory is supposed to help us understand as discussed by the authors. But when political theorists correct the imbalance and turn to complex historical case studies or the practicalities of daily life, they are accused of abandoning the big questions and grand narratives that dignify their mode of inquiry and distinguish it from mere journalism.
Abstract: Introduction Political theorists periodically go public to fault their subdiscipline for its flaws. As the chapters of this volume demonstrate, the critique is often that political theory is too ahistorical, abstract and removed from the political realities theory is supposed to help us understand. Caught up in canonical texts, gripped by ideal questions never asked by real politicians, like ‘what is justice?’ or ‘which is the best regime?’ or ‘how are subjects formed?’, political theory is said to list too far to one side, becoming all theory, no politics. On the other hand, when political theorists correct the imbalance and turn to complex historical case studies or the practicalities of daily life, they are accused of abandoning the big questions and grand narratives that dignify their mode of inquiry and distinguish it from mere journalism. Both timeless and timebound, it sometimes seems that political theory can do no right.
67 citations