scholarly journals Marx, Cole and the Frankfurt School: Realising the political potential of critical social theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Masquelier
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Emancipatory Practice ◽  
Positive Step ◽  
Libertarian Socialism

In this article, the author proposes that whilst Habermas’s attempt to conceptualise a political form oriented towards the institutionalisation of emancipatory practice represents a positive step for critical theory, it is best served by developing a theoretical framework that does not presuppose or apologise for the instrumental mastery of external nature. It is argued that in order to achieve such a task, the political potential of the critique of instrumental reason elaborated by the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists ought to be realised through the labour-mediated reconciliation of humanity with both internal and external nature, for which the libertarian socialism of G. D. H. Cole provides an adequate basis.

Can social systems theory be used for immanent critique?

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei Procyshyn
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
Immanent Critique

Two trends have emerged in recent work from the Frankfurt School: the first involves a reconsideration of immanent critique’s basic commitments and viability for critical social theory, while the second involves an effort to introduce temporal considerations for social interaction into critical theorizing to help make sense of the phenomenon of social acceleration. This article contributes to these ongoing discussions by investigating whether social systems theory, in which temporal relations play a primary role, can be integrated with immanent critique. If such a synthesis were successful, it would promise to unify two distinct forms of social theorizing that have often been taken to be orthogonal or incommensurate since the debate between Luhmann and Habermas in the 1970s. The investigation proceeds in three parts: first, the article delineates immanent critique’s conditions of success; second, using these conditions, it identifies potential points of contact between social systems theorizing and immanent critical forms of analysis, while exemplifying these commonalities via a case study; finally, the article argues that, although immanent critique is not a strict method of analysis or investigation, its success conditions preclude social systems theory on the grounds that the latter approach cannot anchor itself within the context of analysis in the way ‘immanent critique’ requires.

Infrastructural Fractals: Revisiting the Micro—Macro Distinction in Social Theory

10.1068/d420t ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 832-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casper B Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electronic Patient Records ◽  
Fractal Approach ◽  
Social Theorist ◽  
Danish Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between the supposedly small—the micro—and the supposedly large—the macro—has been a long-standing concern in social theory. However, although many attempts have been made to link these two seemingly disjoint dimensions, in the present paper I argue against such an endeavour. Instead, I outline a fractal approach to the study of space, society, and infrastructure. A fractal orientation requires a number of related conceptual reorientations. It has implications for thinking about scale and perspective, and (sociotechnical) relations, and for considering the role of the social theorist in analyzing such relations. I find empirical illustration in the case of the development of electronic patient records in Danish health care. The role of the social theorist is explored through a comparison of the political and normative stance enabled, respectively, by a critical social theory and a fractal social theory.

Reason and receptivity in critical theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1043-1051
Author(s):  
Fred Rush
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenology ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Discourse Ethics ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Historical Antecedents

Nikolas Kompridis' Critique and Disclosure is a sustained argument for the proposition that critical social theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School is best carried forward by rejecting central aspects of Habermas' neo-Kantian version of it. The most promising future direction for critical theory according to Kompridis involves a reconsideration of the resources of hermeneutic phenomenology, especially renewed attention to the Heideggerian concept ‘disclosure’. To this end, Kompridis develops a distinctive dialectical version of this concept. I agree that Kantian versions of critical theory are philosophically suspect, and that critical theory is most conceptually vital and politically trenchant when turned away from ‘discourse ethics' and the like. I am a bit less sanguine than is Kompridis with a turn to Heidegger, however, and raise several issues having to do with that aspect of Kompridis' account. This caution is not rooted simply in the historical fact that critical theory from its inception has attempted to immunize itself against phenomenology; it is rather a conceptual matter. In my judgment, Kompridis does not need to develop, as he does, an intricate account of overlap between what he holds best about critical theory and Heidegger’s ontology. If one were looking for historical antecedents that do not come freighted with what Horkheimer derided as ‘irrationalism’, one would do better to investigate early German Romanticism, in which there is an explicitly interpretive yet dialectical methodology on offer. Moreover, the central doctrines of Jena Romanticism exhibit more positive points of contact with the earlier, more skeptical forms of critical theory that Kompridis might favor, e.g. Adorno’s.

The critical social theory of the Frankfurt School, and the ‘social turn’ in IR

2005 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Weber
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Juergen Habermas ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Critical Social

Critical theory in the Frankfurt School mould has made various inroads into IR theorising, and provided many a stimulus to attempts at redressing the ‘positivist’ imbalance in the discipline. Many of the conceptual offerings of the Frankfurt School perspective have received critical attention in IR theory debates, and while these are still ongoing, the purpose of this discussion is not to attempt to contribute by furthering either methodological interests, or politico-philosophical inquiry. Instead, I focus on the near omission of the social-theoretic aspect of the work especially of Juergen Habermas. I argue that a more in-depth exploration of critical social theory has considerable potential in the context of the ‘social turn’ in IR theory. The lack of attention to this potential is arguably due in part to the importance of Habermas' contribution to cosmopolitan normative theory, and the status held by the cosmopolitan-communitarian debate as a key site of critical IR debate for many years throughout the 1990s. The productivity of the Habermasian conception of the discourse theory of morality within this set of concerns has been obvious, and continues.

The Reification of the Other as a Social Pathology

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 13-44
Author(s):  
Alexis Gros ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Social Pathology ◽  
Social Critical ◽  
Alternative Reading

The present paper constitutes an attempt to articulate, systematize, and further develop the implicit traces of a phenomenological critical theory that, according to Michael Barber’s reading, are to be found in Schutz’s thought. It is my contention that a good way to achieve this aim is by reading Schutz against the background of novel, phenomenologically and hermeneutically informed accounts of Critical Theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School, such as Hartmut Rosa’s. In order to achieve the stated objective, I will proceed in four steps. First (1), I will briefly reconstruct the mostly negative reception of phenomenology, the interpretive social sciences, and Schutz by both the Frankfurt School and contemporary critical social theory. Second (2), I will present Barber’s alternative reading of Schutzian phenomenology as entailing an implicit ethics and a rudimentary critical theory based thereon. Third (3), I will sketch out Rosa’s formal model of Critical Theory as an heuristic means for articulating Schutz’s unspoken social-critical insights. Finally (4), establishing a dialogue between Barber’s reading of Schutz and Rosa’s account, I will provide a preliminary articulation of Schutz’s rudimentary critical theory.

Marcuse’s Contribution to Political Thought: On Potentiality, Pre-enactment, and the Surrealism of Liberation

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Oliver Marchart
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
The Status ◽  
Reality Principle

Among theorists associated with the first generation of the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse’s position is singular in that he provides us with an unabashedly affirmative theory of politics as liberatory practice. The article discusses Marcuse’s contribution to political thought by pointing out how, in particular, three aspects remain highly pertinent to contemporary thought: (a) his account of freedom as potentiality, to be actualized in political practice; (b) his conception of the political pre-figuration or pre-enactment of a liberated society; and (c) his rehabilitation of the human faculty of imagination that allows us to overcome the reality principle of the status quo by venturing, qua practice, into the realm of the revolutionary surreal, thereby enlarging the horizon of what is politically imaginable. In a final step Marcuse’s contribution is contrasted with contemporary theories of the political.

scholarly journals EUROPE’S BORDERS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: GOVERNMENTALITY AND IDENTITY

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 589-594
Author(s):  
Jan Grzymski
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Neighbourhood Policy ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Eastern Partnership ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Oriented Research

This article argues that the EU's neighbourhood policy is deeply entrenched in the Eurocentric spatial imaginaries of the EU as the universal core of and pole of attraction to its neighbours. This is especially clear in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and Eastern Partnership (EaP) concept of an asymmetrical partnership and neighbourhood. The ENP and EaP constituted the EU as a fully European core, while simultaneously othering its neighbourhood as not-fully European with an uncertain status of being between the inside and outside. This article attempts to expose how the ENP and EaP's practices draw a border for the EU/Europe and its neighbourhood with the use of specific EU policy instruments, which are not just technical or professional tools. To the contrary, these instruments hold some potential power in constituting and envisioning the EU's closest outside neighbours. This article will move beyond application-oriented research and draw on critical social theory, especially the already-existing governmentality research as well as Michel Foucault's theory of power. The article concludes with the exposed mechanisms of constructing the political and cultural space of neighbourhood (and ultimately Europe too) through the ENP and EaP's governmental rationalities of their border practices. 

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