scholarly journals Social criticism as medical diagnosis? On the role of social pathology and crisis within critical theory

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Peter J. Verovšek
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Social Pathology ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Talking Cure

The critical theory of the Frankfurt School starts with an explanatory-diagnostic analysis of the social pathologies of the present followed by anticipatory-utopian reflection on possible treatments for these disorders. This approach draws extensively on parallels to medicine. I argue that the ideas of social pathology and crisis that pervade the methodological writings of the Frankfurt School help to explain critical theory’s contention that the object of critique identifies itself when social institutions cease to function smoothly. However, in reflecting on the role that reason and self-awareness play in the second stage of social criticism, I contend that this model is actually better conceptualized through the lens of the psychoanalyst rather than the physician. Although the first generation’s explicit commitment to psychoanalysis has dissipated in recent critical theory, faith in a rationalized ‘talking cure’ leading to greater self-awareness of existing pathologies remains at the core of the Frankfurt School.

scholarly journals Characterising social pathologies: an analytic grid

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Freyenhagen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Social Pathology ◽  
Philosophy Today ◽  
The Social ◽  
In Virtue Of

In this paper, I would like to take up one proposal that I touch on as part of the longer paper delivered at the SPT conference on Critical Theory and the Concept of Social Pathology. The proposal is an analytic grid for characterising social pathologies, particularly in thelight of the conceptualisations of this idea specified within the Frankfurt School CriticalTheory tradition.Let me first summarise briefly the longer paper. I present some general features of the idea of social pathology (see below), and suggest that this idea can set FrankfurtSchool Critical Theory apart from mainstream liberal approaches – notably, in virtue of the specifically ethical register it involves (rather than a justice-based one dominant incontemporary liberalism) and the interdisciplinary approach it calls for (which marks a contrast to the relatively stark division between normative theorising and the social sciences characteristic of much of political philosophy today). I criticise the way Habermas and Honneth transform the early Frankfurt School conceptualisations of this idea by tying itto their respective models of functional differentiation of society.

scholarly journals Analysing Conceptions of Social Pathology: Eight Questions

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arto Laitinen ◽  
Arvi Särkelä
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Social Pathology ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Axel Honneth

Axel Honneth has suggested that the task of social philosophy can be defined as the diagnosisand therapy of social pathologies. He has developed that view in various writings (Honneth2007, 2009, 2014a, 2014b; cf. Zurn 2011; Freyenhagen 2015). In these different writings, he has in fact defended different conceptions of social pathology, as we try to show elsewhere(cf. Särkelä & Laitinen, ms). In so doing he has nonetheless brought the notion of social pathology to the centre of interest for researchers interested in Frankfurt School Critical Theory or the philosophy of social criticism more generally.In this short paper, we suggest some central questions for analysing and comparing conceptions of social pathology, which could be thought to be useful for social philosophy, especially for the tradition of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Rival conceptions of socialpathology will give rival answers to these questions and the conceptions can be classifiedand compared with the help of these answers. Of course, any two conceptions can be compared in any of the details that either of them have, but our aim here is to map some of the central issues as stake in the philosophical discourse on social pathology. We discuss and compare in more detail four conceptions of social pathology with the help of these questions in Laitinen & Särkelä (2018) and in Honneth’s work in particular in Särkelä and Laitinen (2018). The questions we present in this paper are intended less as an a priori foranalysing conception of social pathology, than a potentially helpful a posteriori reflectionof the kind of questions one is confronted with when inquiring into the debate on social pathology. ’Pathology’ can mean both the science studying diseases and the object of inquiry, the disease itself. Unless otherwise indicated (as in subsection 7), we refer to the diseases themselves with ‘pathology’.

POLIVARIABILITY OF THE BASTARD MOTIF IN THE SHORT STORIES BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT: CHARACTER IN SEARCH OF SELF-IDENTIFICATION

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Oksana Galchuk
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Guy De Maupassant ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Role Of It ◽  
Structural Methods

The theme of illegitimacy Guy de Maupassant evolved in his works this article perceives as one of the factors of the author’s concept of a person and the plane of intersection of the most typical motifs of his short stories. The study of the author’s concept of a person through the prism of polivariability of the motif of a bastard is relevant in today’s revision of traditional values, transformation of the usual social institutions and search for identities, etc. The purpose of the study is to give a definition to the existence specifics of the bastard motif in the Maupassant’s short stories by using historical and literary, comparative, structural methods of analysis as dominant. To do this, I analyze the content, variability and the role of this motive in the formation of the Maupassant’s concept of a person, the author’s innovations in its interpretation from the point of view of literary diachrony. Maupassant interprets the bastard motif in the social, psychological and metaphorical-symbolic sense. For the short stories with the presentation of this motif, I suggest the typology based on the role of it in the structure of the work and the ideological and thematic content: the short stories with a motif-fragment, the ones with the bastard’s leitmotif and the group where the bastard motif becomes a central theme. The Maupassant’s interpretation of the bastard motif combines the general tendencies of its existence in the world’s literary tradition and individual reading. The latter is the result of the author’s understanding of the relevant for the era issues: the transformation of the family model, the interest in the theory of heredity, the strengthening of atheistic sentiments, the growth of frustration in the system of traditional social and moral values etc. This study sets the ground for a prospective analysis of the evolution the bastard motif in the short-story collections of different years or a comparative study of the motif in short stories and novels by Maupassant.

The Politics of Global Health Inequalities

2019 ◽  
pp. 58-84
Author(s):  
Yusra Ribhi Shawar ◽  
Jennifer Prah Ruger
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Health ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
The Social

Careful investigations of the political determinants of health that include the role of power in health inequalities—systematic differences in health achievements among different population groups—are increasing but remain inadequate. Historically, much of the research examining health inequalities has been influenced by biomedical perspectives and focused, as such, on ‘downstream’ factors. More recently, there has been greater recognition of more ‘distal’ and ‘upstream’ drivers of health inequalities, including the impacts of power as expressed by actors, as well as embedded in societal structures, institutions, and processes. The goal of this chapter is to examine how power has been conceptualised and analysed to date in relation to health inequalities. After reviewing the state of health inequality scholarship and the emerging interest in studying power in global health, the chapter presents varied conceptualisations of power and how they are used in the literature to understand health inequalities. The chapter highlights the particular disciplinary influences in studying power across the social sciences, including anthropology, political science, and sociology, as well as cross-cutting perspectives such as critical theory and health capability. It concludes by highlighting strengths and limitations of the existing research in this area and discussing power conceptualisations and frameworks that so far have been underused in health inequalities research. This includes potential areas for future inquiry and approaches that may expand the study of as well as action on addressing health inequality.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Marinopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
First Century ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Scientific Philosophy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Epistemology

Critical Theory and Epistemology is a comparison of the major epistemological concerns in the twentieth century with critical theory of the Frankfurt School. I focus on modern epistemology as a theory of and about science that also addresses the social and political aims of scientific enquiry.The critique that the book deploys on the epistemological tendencies of late modernity suggests that the main distinction between Kant and the critical theorists lies in their understanding of rationality. Such a critique can be characterized as the ‘battle’ of modern epistemology for or against the scientifically, socially and politically rational. Thus, arguments of modern epistemology, as articulated by phenomenology, structuralism, poststructuralism, modernists and postmodernists, systems’ theory and critical realism, can certainly be considered ‘modern’ in historical terms, but in essence their concerns are of a pre-modern and pre-scientific nature. In such a manner, we come closer to understanding what constitutes the scientific, philosophy, truth, and whether modern epistemology paves the way for a political epistemology in the twenty-first century.

Varieties of Buddhist Practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-125
Author(s):  
Nicolas Bommarito
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This chapter provides an overview of the wide variety of Buddhist practices. Though people who practice Buddhism would all self-identify as Buddhist, what Buddhism means to them and the role it plays in their lives is very different. Think about the social context. For some Buddhists, Buddhism is deeply intertwined with both family life and powerful social institutions. This social context affects how practice looks for each. The role of ritual is also different for each. Moreover, there are different background assumptions about the supernatural in play. Another difference is the place of meditation in the lives of each of these Buddhists. None of this is to say that any of these people are practicing “real” or “authentic” Buddhism. It is merely to highlight the ways in which Buddhist practice varies around the world.

Nurseries as a special form of social care in the Tambov Governorate in the early 20th century

2020 ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Inna A. Shikunova ◽  
Pavel P. Shcherbinin
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Scientific Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

We consider the formation and development features of the nurseries as a special social institution in the Tambov Governorate in the early of 20th century. The governorate and county levels of declared scientific problem consideration allows to conduct the successful reconstruction of the formation and activities of infant nurseries for foundlings, orphans in both urban and rural areas, which reflected the practice of social care and charity of “trouble children”. We reveal the implementation features of county initiatives for the social protection of foundlings and orphans, as well as the levels and forms of such support for such categories of Russian society by local authorities. We clarify the possibilities of organizing nurseries for foundlings at the governorate and county hospitals and maternity wards. We note the role of particular medical workers in the development of civic initiatives and public service in the rescue of foundlings. We identify the historiographic traditions of both domestic and foreign historians in the study of the orphans charity in the context of the social work organization and the social institutions development, including nurseries. Based on the analysis of a wide range of historical sources, it was possible to identify the most successful and effective practices of organizing nurseries both in the peaceful years and in the periods of Russian-Japanese War of 1904–1905 and World War I 1914–1918, which allowed us to consider various little-studied aspects of the stated scientific problem. We reveal the regional features of the social protection system for orphans through the prism of nursery care. We clarify the position and role of the Orthodox Church on the organization of orphan charity in monasteries during the war years of 1914–1918. We reveal the main posing issues of the prospects for studying a wide range of problems in the history of orphanhood in the Tambov Governorate in the early 20th century. We pay attention to the importance of taking into account regional specifics and specific historical manifestations of social policy when conducting a study of charitable support and private public initiatives of the considered period.

Reading Performance Criticism

1989 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Goldhill
Keyword(s):  
Social Performance ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Dress Code ◽  
Social Event ◽  
Performance Criticism ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
London Stage

Fred Astaire once remarked of performing in London that he knew when the end of a play's run was approaching when he saw the first black tie in the audience. Perhaps this is an American's ironic representation of the snobbishness of pre-War London (though he was the American who sang the top-hat, white tie and tails into a part of his personal image). Perhaps it is merely an accurate (or nostalgic) picture of the dress code of the audiences of the period. The very appeal to such a dress code, however – in whatever way we choose to read the anecdote – inevitably relies on a whole network of cultural ideas and norms to make its point. It implies tacitly what is easily recoverable from other sources about the theatre of the period: the expected class of the audience; the sense of ‘an evening's entertainment’ – attending the fashionable play of the season, with all the implications of the theatre as a place not merely for seeing but also for being seen; the range of subjects and characters portrayed on the London stage of the period; the role of London as a European capital of a world empire (with a particular self-awareness of itself as a capital); the expected types of narrative, events, and language, that for many modern readers could be evoked with the phrase ‘a Fred Astaire story’. If we want to understand the impact of the plays of Ibsen or Brecht or Osborne or Beckett, it cannot be merely through ‘dramatic techniques’, but must also take into account the social performance that is theatre. Ibsen's commitment to a realist aesthetic is no doubt instrumental to the impact of his plays, but it is because his (socially committed) dramas challenged the proprieties of the social event of theatre that his first reviewers were so hostile.

Institutional Networks for Inclusive Coastal Management in Trinidad and Tobago

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1095-1111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Tompkins ◽  
W Neil Adger ◽  
Katrina Brown
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Zone Management ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Participatory Workshop ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semistructured Interviews

The authors consider the role of institutional networks in integrated and inclusive coastal-zone management in Trinidad and Tobago. Drawing on theories of social institutions, a framework for understanding the institutional prerequisites for participatory management is developed. In this framework, distinction is made between institutions at the community, formal-organisational, and national regulatory levels and the means by which institutions adapt to and learn about new issues in terms of networks of dependence and exchange are characterised. The immediate networks between actors (their spaces of dependence) are augmented by wider networks between institutions at various scales (their spaces of exchange). This framework is applied to a case study of resource management in Trinidad and Tobago. Semistructured interviews with key government urban and economic planners, fisheries regulators, and other agents in Trinidad and Tobago, and a participatory workshop for resource managers, are used to identify the perceived opportunities and constraints relating to integrated and inclusive resource management within the social institutions. The findings are analysed through an exploration of the spaces of dependence and exchange that exist in the various social networks at the different institutional scales. The prescriptive relevance of this approach is in the demonstration of the nature of change required in social institutions at all scales to facilitate integrated and inclusive resource management.

Indigenous Tewa language regimes across time: Persistence and transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (246) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul V. Kroskrity
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spanish Colonization ◽  
Colonial Oppression ◽  
The Village

AbstractThis article attempts to trace and understand the historical development and transformation of the regimes of language Indigenous to the Village of Tewa (northeastern Arizona). It examines the social institutions and cultural practices that first cultivated a particular set of language ideologies and linguistic practices in the precolonial period. It also tracks more recent transformations involving contemporary Tewa adaptations to inclusion in the federally recognized Hopi Tribe and to the hegemony of the larger nation-state. Critical to my argument is the role of theocratic institutions and Indigenous social organization (e.g., clans and moieties) in providing a foundation for ideological production and elaboration. This account provides a better analysis of Tewa linguistic resistance to Spanish colonization than that of Edward Dozier, who attributed language contact outcomes to the historical circumstances of Spanish colonial oppression rather than to the expression of Indigenous language ideologies, including their regimes of temporalization and the crossing of temporal borders in subjective history.

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