No Social Science Without Critical Theory

E-Book Overview

Since the linguistic turn in Frankfurt School critical theory during the 1970s, philosophical concerns have become increasingly important to its overall agenda, at the expense of concrete social-scientific inquiries. At the same time, each of the individual social sciences especially economics and psychology, but also political science and sociology have been moving further and further away from the challenge key representatives of the so-called first generation of Frankfurt School critical theorists (Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse) identified as central to the promise and responsibility of social science: to illuminate those dimensions of modern societies that prevent the reconciliation of facts and norms. As professional disciplines, each individual social science, and even philosophy, is prone to ignoring both the actuality and the relevance for research of alienation and reification as the mediating processes that constitute the reference frames for critical theory. Consequently, mainstream social-scientific research tends to progress in the hypothetical: we study the social world as if alienation, reification, and more recent incarnations of those mediating processes had lost their shaping forcewhile, in the context of globalization, their manifestations are ever more apparent, and tangible. The chapters included in this volume of "Current Perspectives in Social Theory" highlight the problematic nature of mainstream perspectives, and the growing need to reaffirm how the specific kind of critique the early Frankfurt School theorists advocated is not less, but far more important today. Contributions examine the links between political geographies and globalization; Marxism and public sociology; anti-Semitic workers and Jewish stereotypes; governmental rationality and state power; restricted eros and contemporary politics; Marcuse and the psycho-politics of transformation; contemporary theory and consumer society; and the theory of C. Wright Mills. This book includes nine chapters from some of the most respected personalities in the field and a broad and diverse look at social science and critical theory.

E-Book Content

CURRENT PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL THEORY Series Editors: Harry F. Dahms and Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 1: 1980 Edited by Scott G. McNall and Garry N. Howe Volume 2: 1981 Edited by Scott G. McNall and Garry N. Howe Volume 3: 1982 Edited by Scott G. McNall Volume 4: 1983 Edited by Scott G. McNall Volume 5: 1984 Edited by Scott G. McNall Volume 6: 1985 Edited by Scott G. McNall Volume 7: 1986 Edited by John Wilson Volume 8: 1987 Edited by John Wilson Volume 9: 1989 Edited by John Wilson Volume 10: 1990 Edited by John Wilson Volume 11: 1991 Edited by Ben Agger Volume 12: 1992 Edited by Ben Agger Volume 13: 1993 Edited by Ben Agger Volume 14: 1994 Edited by Ben Agger Supplement 1: Recent Developments in the Theory of Social Structure, 1994 Edited by J. David Knottnerus and Christopher Prendergast Volume 15: 1995 Edited by Ben Agger Volume 16: 1996 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 17: 1997 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 18: 1998 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 19: 1999 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 20: 2000 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 21: Bringing Capitalism Back for Critique by Social Theory, 2001 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 22: Critical Theory: Diverse Objects, Diverse Subjects, 2003 Edited by Jennifer M. Lehmann Volume 23: Social Theory as Politics in Knowledge, 2
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