Conclusions for Theory and Practice

Abstract

Any conception of critical theory and any definition of critical practice must necessarily be provisional: it is a question of grasping and consolidating the current moment, while recognising that this is a moment within processes of ongoing generative change, involving theoretical developments, shifts in policy and practice, and continual transformations within social formations. A critical approach may be seen to denote ways of thinking and working that continually challenge the taken-for-grantedness of modernism (and the potential for nihilistic relativism within postmodernism), and open up possibilities for movement wherever oppression and collusion may currently be embedded. It may remain in an uneasy relationship with modernity (or postmodernity): it cannot occupy a territory that is entirely separate from dominant cultural, material or emotional formations, nor can it stand totally apart from their legacy as a context of thought and practice. It must therefore locate itself on the margins — sufficiently outside the mainstream so as to retain a critical edge, but not so far away as to lose contact and leverage. From such a position, it may also have the potential to engage with and ‘turn’ elements of modernist and postmodern approaches, as part of a wider emancipatory strategy.KeywordsSocial TheoryCritical TheoryCritical PracticeCritical EdgeCritical Social TheoryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.