Postmodernism, Post-Fordism, and Critical Social Theory

1988 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Albertsen
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Service Class ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Advanced Capitalist

The relationship between the transformation of advanced capitalist societies from Fordism to post-Fordism and the simultaneous rise within these societies of postmodern culture is investigated. In art and architecture the exhaustion of high-modernist aesthetic progressivism resulted in a postmodern ‘condition’ of ‘free disposability’ of aesthetic materials which was furthered by societal developments such as the dissolution of the Fordist model of standardized consumption into diversified and aesthetizised consumption, the rise of an experimenting culture industry after the youth revolt of the 1960s, the growth of the service class, and the advent of ‘disposability’ in regard to ways and styles of living. In social philosophy a general delegitimation of the grand narratives of progress and emancipation occurred as ‘high-Fordism’ gave way to stagnating ‘late-Fordism’ and fragmented ‘post-Fordism’. In this process the technocratic–statist narrative of Fordism itself and the labor utopia of the industrial working class lost credibility, without any emergence of convincing utopian or grand reformist alternatives. The spatial (global–local) aspects of these transformations are emphasized and the paper concludes with some left-critical considerations which stress the democratic potential of postmodernism and its openness towards local alliances protective against the powers of global capitals and centralized states.

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.

A Social Perspective on Information Security

2003 ◽  
pp. 249-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Clarke ◽  
Paul Drake
Keyword(s):  
Information Security ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Initial Framework

Information security has become a largely rule-based domain, substantially focusing on issues of confidentiality. But the standards developed to achieve this, both in the U.S. and in the UK, have not been adopted as widely as had been hoped. By casting information security as a human-centred domain, this chapter, by means of a critique fom a social theoretical perspective, seeks to offer a way forward to a more widely acceptable approach. Social philosophy, social theory, and empirical evidence all suggest a basis in critical social theory as a potential way forward, and an initial framework based on this, is developed within this study. All of this is seen to point toward information security seen as human action, mediated through subjective understanding, and this research is now focusing on the operationalisation of these concepts.

A Moral Framework for Caring in Nursing: Neo-Stoic Eudaemonism

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Sumner,
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Nursing Practice ◽  
Moral Distress ◽  
Nursing Profession ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Caring Relationship ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

The traditional moral and ethical models utilized by the nursing profession are examined through a critical social theory lens to identify limitations or inappropriateness for application within the nurse-patient caring relationship. Classical ethical theories continue to have merit in the delivery of professional nursing, but within the context of practice, are system imposed. Neo-Stoic Eudaemonism, arising from an individual’s interiority, stimulates awareness of the nurse as an equal human in the relationship. This theory offers universality that is a-contextual. It can differentiate moral and ethical components of nursing practice and offers insight into nurses’ moral distress.

On the Development of the Critique of Political Economy as a Critical Social Theory of Economic Objectivity

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-193
Author(s):  
Chris O’Kane
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Critical Social

AbstractThis review-essay assays Werner Bonefeld’s timely attempt to unite contemporary critical theory with the critique of political economy. I begin by contextualising Bonefeld’s contribution in relation to the dearth of material on this issue in contemporary anglophone critical theory. I then discuss the anglophone reception of Adornian critical theory and provide an overview of the development of the subterranean critical-theoretical interpretations of the critique of political economy that Adorno influenced which have been occluded by the former. This sets up my discussion of how Bonefeld has taken up, criticised and developed this subterranean strand in critical theory and the critique of political economy. I close with some criticisms of how Bonefeld addresses the relationship between critical theory and the critique of political economy and point toward several areas of further investigation that are intended to extend this approach to the contemporary critical theory of society.

scholarly journals The Spirit of Fluxus as a Nomadic Art Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
S.E. Wilmer
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Conceptual Art ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Brain

Fluxus was the brain-child of a Lithuanian-born artist named George Maciunas whose family fled to Germany in the Second World War, where they eventually became displaced persons and later emigrated to the USA. Maciunas studied art and architecture in Pittsburgh and New York before working as an architect and graphic artist and founded the Fluxus movement at the beginning of the 1960s. During his student years, he became fascinated by nomadic art in Asia and Eastern Europe that would later influence his life’s work. This essay considers the relationship between his interest in nomadism and the nature of the Fluxus movement that spread across the world, breaking down barriers between art and life, privileging concrete and conceptual art, and staging unusual events. It applies Braidotti’s notion of the nomadic subject to Maciunas’ encouragement of radical styles of performance art, such as Yoko Ono’s minimalist conceptual work and Joseph Beuys’s Tatar-influenced use of fat and felt.

scholarly journals Pierre Bourdieu og Axel Honneth: Sociologisk og socialfilosofisk kritik af den anerkendte orden. Indledning

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Anders Mathiesen ◽  
Rasmus Willig
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Moral Progress ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Philosophical Critique ◽  
Axel Honneth ◽  
Normative Criteria ◽  
Critical Social

Pierre Bourdieu and Axel Honneth: Sociological versus social-philosophical critique of the theory of recognition This special issue of Dansk Sociologi on “Pierre Bourdieu & Axel Honneth“ com¬mences with a discussion between Pierre Bourdieu and Axel Honneth from 1984. It outlines their different positions as regards the relation to social-philo¬so¬phical critique and to the concept of recognition. Sociological critique and social-philosophical critique have always had areas of conflict. Sociology has avoi¬ded creating normative criteria to evaluate societal development, while hand social-philosophy insists on normative criteria for what can been seen as moral progress. It is argued that, even though Bourdieu and Honneth initially represent different perspectives, a closer comparison between these two sociologists may contribute to a more elaborated and critical social theory.

scholarly journals Šiądienos kritinės teorijos klausimu

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-038
Author(s):  
Algimantas Valantiejus
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Theoretical Problem ◽  
Theoretical Structure ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Contemporary Practice ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Critical Social

Santrauka. Šio straipsnio paskirtis – atnaujinti diskusiją dėl teorinės struktūros sandaros, kurią suda­ro ir analitiniai, ir normatyviniai elementai. Pagrindinis uždavinys – analitiškumo ir normatyviškumo komponentų kintančioje kritinės socialinės teorijos sandaroje identifikavimas ir metodologinių požiūrių į šių komponentų tarpusavio santykį šiuolaikinėse praktikos teorijose analizė. Siekiama atsakyti į klausimą, kodėl kritikos sąvoka šiuolaikinėse praktikos teorijose keičiama reflektyvumo sąvoka. Straipsnyje, remiantis kritinių teoretikų nuorodomis ir jas interpretuojant, analizuojamos „nekalto“ (Wittgensteino Filosofinių tyrinėjimų 308 fragmente aptariama prasme) terminologinio pakeitimo euristinės implikacijos šių dienų kritinėms socialinėms teorijoms, kurios skiriamos nuo ankstyvosios Frankfurto kritinės teorijos. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: kritika, reflektyvumas, kritinė teorija, kritinė socialinė teorija, praktikos teo­rija. Key words: critique, reflexivity, critical theory, critical social theory, practice theory. ABSTRACT ON THE QUESTION OF CRITICAL THEORY TODAY The task of this article is to renew the discussion about the theoretical structure which includes both analytical and normative elements. The main theoretical problem analyzed in the article is the identifi­cation of analytical and normative elements in the structure of critical social theory and the analysis of the relationship between these elements in contemporary practice theories. The article seeks to answer the ques­tion why the concept of critique in contemporary practice theories is changed by the concept of reflexivity. The article aims to emphasize the implications of this „innocent“ terminological change for contemporary critical social theories, distinguished from early Critical Theory of Frankfurt School.

scholarly journals Pride or Shame?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Montefusco
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Working Class Literature ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The article proposes a reading of the novels of Alberto Prunetti, in the light of his critical reflection on working class literature. The author studies the relationship of Prunetti’s reflection with the debate on ‘literature and industry’ held in the ‘Menabò’ in the 1960s, in order to appreciate innovations and limits of this new perspective. A comparison is then proposed with contemporary French working class literature, in particular with the novels of Edouard Louis. On the basis of the different treatment of the two competitive concepts of Pride and Shame used by the writers, the author concludes that Prunetti’s writing is characterized by a heroic attitude, while Louis’ one, influenced by Ernaux and Eribon, is more pessimistic and intersectional.

Introduction to ‘Theodor W. Adorno on Marx and the Basic Concepts of Sociological Theory. From a Seminar Transcript in the Summer Semester of 1962’

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris O’Kane
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Summer Semester ◽  
Critical Social

AbstractThis introduction outlines the importance that Hans-Georg Backhaus’s transcript of Adorno’s 1962 seminar on ‘Marx and the Basic Concepts of Sociological Theory’ has for shedding light on the relationship between Adorno’s critical theory and the critique of political economy. PartIsignals the importance of the seminar by assaying the Anglophone scholarship on Adorno. PartIIcontextualises the seminar in the development of his thought. PartsIIIandIVfocus on what the transcript tells us about Adorno’s interpretation of Marx and the importance this interpretation held for Adorno’s critical social theory. PartVpoints to the influence this interpretation of the critique of political economy had on the formation of the New German Reading of Marx.

Accent Policy and Accent Modification Enterprises as Potential Indicators of Intercultural Power Relations: A Call for an Updated Research Agenda

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brynne D. Ovalle ◽  
Rahul Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.

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