Critical Theory

The importance of being critical: Opening possibilities and hope in education policy study

by Alexandra D'Urso

Considering alternatives for federal education policy in the United States: a critical perspective on No Child Left Behind

by Alexandra D'Urso

Fingerprint, Bellwether, Model Event: Climate Change as Anthropology per se

by Jerome Whitington

This paper discusses three figures of climate anticipation in order to show that climate change poses the problem of... more This paper discusses three figures of climate anticipation in order to show that climate change poses the problem of anthropology per se, that is, the planet with respect to anthropos.

El Principito

by Jorge Postlethwaite

Es un ensayo breve para un seminario de literatura de viaje e imaginacón. Es un ensayo breve para un seminario de literatura de viaje e imaginacón.

Critical psychology and the ideology of individualism

by john cromby

In this paper we explore what we have termed the ideology of individualism in relation to both the academic discipline... more In this paper we explore what we have termed the ideology of individualism in relation to both the academic discipline of psychology and its various related practices. We demonstrate that mainstream psychology, in its uncritical acceptance of dominant ideologies regarding the individual, acts not to explain, describe and ‘help’, but rather maintains and promulgates a series of understandings and practices that legitimate individualised notions of distress while simultaneously drawing attention away from the material and social underpinnings of such distress. We contrast this position with that of critical psychology wherein the individual is reconceptualised, not as a discrete and isolated phenomenon, separate and distinct form an external and objective reality, but as fundamentally interpenetrated by and interwoven with the social, material, political and economic circumstances within which we reside. We conclude by arguing that any approach that does not pay heed to this ‘relationship’ cannot hope to effect sustainable change to either our own thoughts, feelings and experiences or to the circumstances that are implicated in their creation

Misyurov D.A. Dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas // Credo New. 2012. №2

by Dmitry Misyurov

The article suggests dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas: formula with... more The article suggests dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas: formula with dominant and the non-dominant elements; universal formula; formula with symbolic weight of elements; tautological formula. For example, it suggests an opportunity to use the dialectical formulas for modeling and artificial intelligence creation, etc.

"Medium, Immediacy, Intermediality": a call for contributions to a proposed special issue of POSTMODERN CULTURE

by Matt Tierney

Co-edited with Mathias Nilges.

We invite submissions for a proposed special issue of Postmodern Culture entitled “Medium, Immediacy, Intermediality.”... more We invite submissions for a proposed special issue of Postmodern Culture entitled “Medium, Immediacy, Intermediality.” The issue aims to gather ways of seeing the term “medium” beyond current disciplinary frames. Rather than take the routes of literary or film studies, art history or communication theory—and rather than see media as discrete, pre-constituted categories of aesthetics or mechanics—we seek to put the category of medium into question, and in doing so, to facilitate approaches to the various mutually dependent media whose boundaries and frames might now seem less conclusive.

CRITICAL INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY: WHAT IS IT AND WHERE IS IT?

by Gazi Islam

Negating that which Negates us: Marcuse, Critical Theory and the New Politics of Refusal

by Christian Garland

‘Negating that which Negates us: Marcuse, Critical Theory and the New Politics of Refusal’ (under review) in Radical Philosophy Review. Version of paper presented as part of Panel 24: ‘Looting, Refusing, Negating, Embodying’, 'Critical Refusals’ Fourth Biennal Conference of the International Herbert Marcuse Society, University of Pennsylvania, 27-29 October 2011

Something for all, so that none may escape: reworking the critique of consumption (2012)

by Christian Garland

Something for all, so that none may escape: reworking the critique of consumption in Fast Capitalism 8:2

‘Ernst Bloch’ entry in Encyclopedia of Political Science (2010)

by Christian Garland

‘Ernst Bloch’ in Encyclopaedia of Political Science (Washington DC: CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE) eds. Kurian, G.T. Alt, J.E. Chambers, S. and Garrett, G.
http://www.cqpress.com/product/Encyclopedia-of-Political-Science.html

A History of Bisexuality (review)

by Heike Bauer

Call for Papers "Methods in Practice" Workshop, Manchester Workshop in Political Theory, 5-7 September 2012

by Jens Olesen

CRITICAL IMAGES AS CRITICAL THEORY

by Jon Simons

Paper prepared for the Social Theory 2000 conference, May 11-14, 2000, Lexington, Kentucky

The paper argues against a tendency in critical social and political theory to be suspicious of, if not hostile too,... more The paper argues against a tendency in critical social and political theory to be suspicious of, if not hostile too, the prevalence of images in politics and culture. Such critics (Ewen,  Habermas and Bordo) are shown to hold to an ideological, negative images of images that fit into what Mitchell calls an iconoclastic tradition. Bordo's method for demystification of images by means of their contextualisation and complication is brought to bear on her own attitude to images. A fuller account of images, offered by Stafford, attends to the role that images play in human cognitive processes. Moreover, certain images that emulate analogical cognitive processes play a critical role by demonstrating the ways in which knowledge is constructed by means of  broad, complex coherent images of events and processes. Analogy is linked to coherentist notions of truth by drawing on Alcoff’s new coherentism, which links coherence to an immanentist notion of truth. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is an analogy between images which emulate cognitive processes and truths that emerge from coherent constellations of beliefs and practices.

Lives Not Wasted

by Jon Simons

Intended as a blog piece to coincide with the publication of FROM AGAMBEN TO ZIZEK: CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL THEORISTS (2010).

The Universal Character of the Fetish: Critical Theory and Social Crisis. Presented at the 5th Annual Rome Conference on Critical Theory.

by Chris O'Kane

Selling the Past: Levi's as an Agent of Consumptive Mass Culture

by Ben Plache

The solutions of Euro Zone Crisis - a Neo-Gramscian Critique

by Mihail Caradaica

International Conference  CKS - Challenges of the Knowledge Society - Bucuresti: 2012

This paper belongs to the area of critical studies of European Integration and tries to analyse the nature of the... more This paper belongs to the area of critical studies of European Integration and tries to analyse the nature of the European states’ response to euro zone crisis, during the negotiation of European Fiscal Pact. The theoretical approach is neo-gramscianism, which is focused on social forces agency in the process of integration and super-structural dimension of European Single Market. Since 1980, the interests of big capital, gathered in the European Round Table, shaped a neo-liberal dimension of the European economy, adapting it to the context of globalisation.

But this neo-liberal project was also able to capture social-democratic, trade union and centrist demands into a neo-liberal European order, called by Bastiaan van Apeldoorn “embedded” neo-liberalism. This European model has also his limits because it puts the interests of capital in front of social policies through the assurance of market efficiency by EU. My purpose here is to see if during nowadays crisis, the European elite will apply the same economic principles of the embedded neo-liberalism trying to envisage rescue plans. To achieve this, I will follow the theoretical approaches of neo-gramscian authors like Apeldoorn, Bohle or Gill and analyse the state negotiations outputs during the European Council meetings.

Paradox and Critique. Some Thoughts on an Unexpected Affinity between Deleuze and Adorno.

by João Pedro Cachopo

Paper presented at “CONNECTdeleuze: The Second International Deleuze Studies Conference,” Universität zu Köln, Köln, 10-12 August 2009.

Uma revisão crítica da leitura habermasiana da Dialéctica do Iluminismo de Adorno e Horkheimer [Habermas’ Reading of Dialectic of Enlightenment: a critical revision]

by João Pedro Cachopo

Published in Saberes, Natal – RN, vol. 1, no. 1 (December 2008), pp. 57-70 [in Portuguese].

Resumo:

O artigo visa levar a cabo uma revisão crítica da leitura habermasiana da Dialéctica do Iluminismo... more Resumo:

O artigo visa levar a cabo uma revisão crítica da leitura habermasiana da Dialéctica do Iluminismo de Adorno e Horkheimer, tendo como pano de fundo a perspectiva de uma reavaliação do potencial da filosofia adorniana, para lá das fronteiras teóricas da chamada segunda geração da Escola de Frankfurt. Atendendo ao teor crítico da leitura proposta por Habermas, tratar-se-á de discutir dois aspectos que lhe estão subjacentes: a identificação da dimensão mítica do iluminismo com a “racionalidade instrumental”, por um lado, e, por outro, o diagnóstico segundo o qual estaria em causa na Dialéctica do iluminismo uma totalização da crítica que conduziria inevitavelmente a filosofia a uma situação aporética que ameaça conduzi-la ao beco sem saída do cepticismo. Face a este duro diagnóstico, sugere-se que a dimensão paradoxal do pensamento de Adorno pode constituir – permanecendo fiel à sua definição enfática da filosofia como “pensamento que não se deixa travar” – uma vertente imprescindível do pensar filosófico capaz de desencadear, com o seu carácter perturbador, uma crítica imanente da razão.