scholarly journals Theory’s Method?

2021 ◽  
pp. 345-363
Author(s):  
Marianna Poyares
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Ethnographic Methods ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Critical Social

This chapter addresses the use of ethnographic methods in critical social theory, and the assumption that such methods prove to be useful because they allow the researcher to be closer to ‘matter itself’. Instead, I argue for ethnography from within a framework of historical materialism and social critique, marking the difference between such ‘materialism without matter’, based on Marx’s ‘fetishism of the commodity’, and some strategies of New Materialism. My goal is to situate the uses of ethnography for a transformed consideration of the relation between theory and practice.

scholarly journals Pathologies of recognition: An introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Neal Harris
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Pathology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Social

For generations, critical social theorists have turned to the framing of ‘pathology’ to provide a theoretical infrastructure for their critique. Such an approach famously undergirds much of the Frankfurt School’s canonical work. Axel Honneth, current chair of the Institute of Social Research, continues this tradition. While Frankfurt School approaches have largely tied pathology diagnosis to a critique of historically mediated reason, a plurality of alternate conceptions exist. With the ascendancy of an intersubjective approach to critical social theory, the pathologies of the social have increasingly been comprehended as ‘pathologies of recognition’. Advocates of such a framing point to the ease of establishing an immanent basis to their critique, and of the empirical evidence supporting the need for recognition. Yet, today’s academy is increasingly spilt between those who embrace a ‘pathologies of recognition’ framework, and those who consider the development a ‘domestication’ of the Critical Theoretical tradition. This special issue brings together contributors from both sides of this divide. While the optimal framing of social pathology remains contested, the contributors to this collection are committed to furthering forms of social critique which transcend the limited liberal framings of injustice and illegitimacy.

Social Explanation: Structures, Stories, and Ontology. A Reply to Díaz León, Saul, and Sterken

Disputatio ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (50) ◽  
pp. 245-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Haslanger
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Social Agency ◽  
Metaphysical Explanation ◽  
Gender And Race ◽  
Social Explanation ◽  
Critical Social

Abstract In response to commentaries by Esa Díaz León, Jennifer Saul, and Ra- chel Sterken, I develop more fully my views on the role of structure in social and metaphysical explanation. Although I believe that social agency, quite generally, occurs within practices and structures, the relevance of structure depends on the sort of questions we are asking and what interventions we are considering. The emphasis on questions is also relevant in considering metaphysical and meta-metaphysical is- sues about realism with respect to gender and race. I aim to demon- strate that tools we develop in the context of critical social theory can change the questions we ask, what forms of explanation are called for, and how we do philosophy.

scholarly journals Sociedade em Rede: Paraíso ou Pesadelo? Reflexões acerca de novas formas de articulação social e territorial das sociedades

GEOgraphia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Randolph
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Critical Social

Resumo O ensaio visa fornecer elementos conceituais da teoria social crítica a fim de permitir (i) uma leitura crítica da disseminação indiscriminada do termo “rede” e (ii) sua re- apropriação para a caracterização das transformações sociais e territoriais pelas quais passam as sociedades contemporâneas. Interroga, neste sentido, as idéias mais recentemente publicadas por Castells sobre a sociedade em rede, apontando incoerências na abordagem desse autor. Palavras-chave:redes sociais, sociedade em rede.Abstract The article aims to supply conceptual elements of the critical social theory in order to allow (i) a critical apreciation of the term “network” indiscriminate dissemination and (ii) its re- appropriation to characterize social and territorial transformations that are reshaping contemporary societies. Interrogating, in this sense, the ideas more recently published by Castells related to the network-society, pointing out incoherences in that author's approach. Keywords: social nets, network society.

scholarly journals Affective recognition and social freedom - the psychoanalytic and normative-reconstructive logics of grounding social critique in Axel Honneth’s work

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-434
Author(s):  
Werner Euler
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Normative Concept ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Normative Reconstruction ◽  
Legal Subjects

The task of this paper is the following: how should one explain and solve the theory-immanent tension in Honneth?s recent works, i.e. the tension that reflects the difference between the concept of social freedom (a concept grounded in Hegel?s social philosophy methodologically articulated through normative reconstruction) and the concept of ?affective recognition? (which has replaced the earlier normative concept) - in other words: is there a certain logically-factually grounded path from the question of subjective-individual recognition to the intersubjective recognition of free (legal) subjects in society? My thesis is the fol?lowing: this supposed tension is a pseudo-tension. It loosens up - without completely resolving itself - as soon as we combine the two logics of grounding critique that we find in Honneth. However, unrelated to my claim about the pseudo-nature of the mentioned tension, the psychoanalytic mode of grounding critique is erroneous, since one cannot directly arrive at collective components of society starting from the empirical constellation of individual consciousnesses. The relation between subjective individuality and objective (intersubjective) generality is an objective contradiction (as opposed to a purely theoretical tension). If we still decide to pursue this path of grounding critique, we inadvertently introduce a psychologistic approach into social theory. Such an approach can be found in Honneth?s theory of intersubjective (normative) recognition as well.

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