Tradition Of Critical Theory Research Articles

Social criticism, dissonance, and progress: A socio-epistemic approach

The immanent approach adopted by most contemporary representatives of the Critical Theory tradition has generally the purpose of offering a foundation for social criticism that, without relying exclusively on explicit or factually accepted principles, avoids both the potential arbitrariness of subjective judgment and the appeal to transcendent criteria. However, this project has not yet paid much attention to the socio-epistemic elements related to the intersubjective praxis of criticism. Based on this concern, I intend to explore the possibility of immanent criticism by using the epistemic category of dissonance. I will begin by showing how Davidson’s notion of irrationality can overcome the problematic separation between healthy and pathological behavior found in Festinger’s classical theory of cognitive dissonance and serve as an indicator of epistemic contradictions that can lead to social change. Thereafter, I will explain the link between these approaches and both Brandom’s inferential semantics and Honneth’s normative reconstruction. At the end of the first part, I expect to show an articulated picture of how dissonance can serve as a key for the analysis of inconsistencies present both in the belief systems and in the institutions and practices that constitute forms of life. In the second part, I will reconstruct three possible objections to this comprehensive approach in relation to the role of the individual in processes of social criticism and to the notions of progress and rationality that the approach adopts. I will analyze here what kind of meta-criterion is necessary to overcome the discomfort generated by the experience of dissonance so that it leads to social change. Taking up the Hegelian-Pragmatist idea of accumulation of experiences, I will argue that such a meta-criterion refers to the possibility of gathering and using available and non-endogenous socio-epistemic resources that allow reconfiguring the foundations of the questioned form of life.

Why AI Ethics Is a Critical Theory

The ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) is an upcoming field of research that deals with the ethical assessment of emerging AI applications and addresses the new kinds of moral questions that the advent of AI raises. The argument presented in this article is that, even though there exist different approaches and subfields within the ethics of AI, the field resembles a critical theory. Just like a critical theory, the ethics of AI aims to diagnose as well as change society and is fundamentally concerned with human emancipation and empowerment. This is shown through a power analysis that defines the most commonly addressed ethical principles and topics within the field of AI ethics as either to do with relational power or with dispositional power. Moreover, it is concluded that recognizing AI ethics as a critical theory and borrowing insights from the tradition of critical theory can help the field forward.

A Luta contra a “Subjugação da Vontade”: Segunda Natureza, Paradoxo da Libertação e Crítica Imanente nas Grundlinien

In this paper I try to show, first of all, that in Hegel’s philosophy of spirit and second nature theory, freedom means the very dynamic of liberation of the will understood as a process constitutively marked by contradiction and struggle; liberation which, however, while it is understood in this way, leads to the paradox that the act of liberation only becomes possible if the subject’s will is already free or has the feeling of freedom. This paradox can be mitigated when one considers Hegel's account of cultural maturation process [Bildung] and deepening of the intellectualist concept of critique of the Enlightenment, insofar as he relates it not to mere negation, but to the very "negative side" of the spirit present in the affections, language, memory, history, and praxis that as such are the indices for the spirit of the domination of the will, as e.g. in feelings of fear, disrespect, or invisibility, and as such already the first step on the path to its overcoming. In the second part of the paper I present and discuss some criticisms that have been directed at the Hegelian notion of immanent critique by the first generation of the Critical Theory tradition.

Undocumented Latina GBV Survivors: Using Social Capital as a Form of Resistance

This research draws on the tradition of Latinx critical race theory (LatCrit) to explore how social capital is deployed by undocumented Latina GBV survivors as a form of personal and collective resistance. The study uses the social capital matrices of bonding, bridging, and linking capital as its primary narrative analysis grids. The research qualitatively analyzes a sample of undocumented survivors’ counter-stories regarding three factors: citizenship status, help-seeking behaviors, and service use patterns. Research findings illuminate the social logics of GBV disclosure locations, the use of informal support services, and how survivors strategically deploy new economic opportunity structures. The article highlights the intersectionality of GBV and undocumented status, demonstrating how survivors leverage various forms of social capital to resist both the carceral state and the violence of abusers.

Indigenous-language Media Research in Africa: Gains, Losses, Towards a New Research Agenda

ABSTRACT Research on indigenous-language media in Africa is often neglected for several reasons, such as an obsession with research on mainstream media that uses colonial languages of English, French and Portuguese and a general lack of scholarly interest. This semi-systematic review paper looks at the research trajectory of the last two decades, identifying gaps and proposing a new research agenda. Available research conducted from a cultural studies and critical theory perspective reveals the intersection of indigenous-language media with gender and health communication; democracy and development; economics and management; and digitalisation. A broadened new research agenda that follows the critical theory tradition is proposed to critique the dominance of mainstream media together with a decolonial reform agenda that appreciates the importance of indigenous-language media in Africa. Research highlighting new case studies, representations, audiences, business models, innovation and digital journalism by indigenous-language media is proposed.

Accepting educational responsibility for whiteness in academic advising: moving towards anti-racist advising practices

Academic advisors serve as a front-line resource for college students and greatly contribute to student success. However, the presence of whiteness-at-work, or the everyday yet insidious practices that allow whiteness in education to go unchallenged, positions advisors to either perpetuate or dismantle whiteness in their advising practices. This paper uses composite counterstory in the tradition of critical race theory by weaving together the accounts of several academic advisors of Color working at historically white institutions with other sources to develop an understanding of how whiteness-at-work operates within academic advising. Recommendations for advisors and institutions of higher education are offered to move the field of academic advising toward more racially-just advising practices that disrupt whiteness.

The Perilously Racist Carceral System in America and Its Perpetuation of Police Brutality against Black People

Abstract This article discusses various issues of race and law enforcement in the USA through the lenses of critical race theory and Black radical tradition, precisely to convey the fact that racism is still alive and well in the USA and reverberates through the criminal justice system against Black people. American legal scholars are divided on which legal methodology is most appropriate in addressing racial cum legal issues. However, this article argues that tackling the systemic racism and the perilous proclivity of the police in brutalizing Black people in the USA cannot be adequately achieved through the current (mainstream) frameworks of rule of law and democracy because, arguably, these institutions were erected on the foundations of slavery and racism to principally serve the interests of White Americans. Using legal storytelling, the article narrates specific cases of police brutality and amplifies the voices of critical race theorists that racism in the USA cannot truly be dismantled solely via democratic dialogues and legal formalism as the mainstream view tends to always suggest. It posits that the hefty intellectual effort required to positively bend the mainstream towards realizing the constitutional rights of Black people in the USA can only be shouldered on Black radicalism and ‘racial realism’, as Derrick Bell, Cedric Robinson, and other scholars have opined.

Why immanent critique?

AbstractThis article defends the principle, central to the Frankfurt School tradition of critical social theory, that social criticism should rely only on normative criteria that are “immanent” to the society under evaluation. My argument turns on the claim that a normative theory can have a practical aim that places legitimate constraints on its contents. For example, since the aim of advice is to contribute to the advisee's deliberation about what to do, a judgment about what someone should do is good advice only if that person could take it up in her own deliberation. I argue that there is a valuable kind of social criticism analogous to advice, which aims to contribute to the reflection of members of society on how to orient themselves practically to their social world. Drawing on the work of Bernard Williams, I suggest that concrete normative ideals can be so permeated by the needs, social relations, and concepts of one society that they are not real options in a sufficiently different social milieu. Because such criteria cannot serve as a genuine basis for practical orientation to the social world, they are ineligible for use in social criticism of this kind.

A Pharmacology of Cinema

AbstractFrench philosopher Bernard Stiegler inscribes himself in the tradition of critical theory. In this respect, the influence of Adorno and Horkheimer has been crucial to the development of his own understanding of cinema. Yet Stiegler reproaches his predecessors for not having stressed enough the positive virtues of cinema on culture. For Stiegler the industry of cinema is not simply a menace to the human mind, but a positive medium for its reinvention. It is in that sense that cinema is pharmacological, insofar as it can be either spiritually and culturally enhancing or destructive, depending on how it is acted on. As the article concludes, Stiegler's pharmacology of cinema invites us to take part in our cinematic cultural becoming through the revival of the figure of the amateur. But it does so at the risk of cultural snobbery. While Stiegler does not condemn the cinematic medium per se, he does express clear reservations on the potential of commercial cinema, the pharmacological critique of which remains to be thought.

Decolonizing Critical Theory?

AbstractTheorists working within the Frankfurt School tradition of critical theory have not been immune to calls to “decolonize” that have been circulating in and beyond the academic world. This article asks what it means to seek to decolonize a tradition of thought that has never explicitly acknowledged colonial histories. What is needed, instead, this article suggests, is consideration of the very implications of the “colonial modern”—that is, an acknowledgement of the colonial constitution of modernity—for Frankfurt School critical theory's idea of historical progress. The issue is more extensive than simply acknowledging the substantive neglect of colonialism within the tradition; rather, this article suggests that its categories of critique and their associated normative claims are also necessarily implicated by this neglect and require transformation. Acknowledgment of colonial histories requires material reparations for the substantive inequalities bequeathed as legacies of the past, but these reparations also require a transformation of understandings and a recognition of “epistemological justice.”

Influências teóricas de Jürgen Habermas na ciência da informação indexada na BRAPCI

Parte do reconhecimento do filósofo alemão Jürgen Habermas, pertencente à segunda geração de Escola de Frankfurt, participante da tradição da teoria crítica e do pragmatismo, considerando sua importância não só nos estudos de informação, como em outros domínios. Tem como objetivo assinalar sua presença material via base de dados BRAPCI a fim de mapear em uma série de pesquisas, as influências das reflexões deste filósofo. Para este fim, nesta fase, utiliza a metodologia dos Estudos Métricos da Informação com análises dos textos completos dos artigos indexados na Brapci. O resultado recupera os primeiros trabalhos indexados na BRAPCI produzidos no Brasil e fora dele; diagnostica a maior concentração de frequência em razão de um congresso (?) publicado na Revista “Comunicação & Informação” e na Revista Logeion; apresenta uma prevalência de pesquisadores no núcleo do IBICT/UFRJ e UNIRIO que mais foram influenciados por Habermas, estabelecendo uma reflexão sobre a rede de influências derivadas de orientações de Maria Nélida González de Gómez e identifica a obra mais citada “Mudança estrutural da esfera pública” a qual deverá ser o ponto de partida para a continuidade das reflexões sobre a presença do autor na literatura em CI no Brasil. Conclui apresentando uma série de questões desdobradas a partir desses resultados iniciais.

Socialism as an Organic Democratic Form of Life: On Axel Honneth’s Project of a Renewal of Socialism Based on Social Freedom

ABSTRACT The article addresses Axel Honneth’s project of renewing the idea of ⁣⁣socialism based on the concept of social freedom. At first, it emphasises the historical and philosophical singularity of this project within the tradition of critical theory, and then the political potentials represented by the concept of social freedom, especially concerning the openness to several forms of social conflict and the possibility of democratising intimacy. The article argues, however, that Honneth’s proposal to conceive a socialist society as an organic whole undermines rather than enhances the attempt to revitalise socialism as democracy. Aimed at the functions of social integration, the organistic conception of society seeks harmony between the different social spheres (personal relations, economic structures, and political public sphere), which entails the risk of neglecting the intrinsic link between politics and conflict.

Dialectics as immanent critique. Or, dialectics as both ontology and epistemology with a practical intention

This response to Asger S?rensen?s paper From Ontology to Epistemology: Tong, Mao and Hegel is made on the basis of a reflection on the author?s intellectual development with special reference to the idea of ?dialectics?. This development is mainly composed of three periods, in which the author formed his strong antipathy toward dialectics as a mere tool of power (in the 1970s), learnt to understand the importance of ?dialogical logic? in providing conceptual tools for human knowledge of a type of reality which is both objective and subjective - human practices (in the 1980s) - and attempted to understand the ?dialectics of rationalization? by integrating ?dialectics? in the Western tradition of Critical Theory with the Chinese tradition of ?dialectics? systematically interpreted by Feng Qi (1915-1995) since the 1990s.

Operationalizing Critical Race Theory in the Marketplace

Race is integral to the functioning and ideological underpinnings of marketplace actions yet remains undertheorized in marketing. To understand and transform the insidious ways in which race operates, the authors examine its impact in marketplaces and how these effects are shaped by intersecting forms of systemic oppression. They introduce critical race theory (CRT) to the marketing community as a useful framework for understanding consumers, consumption, and contemporary marketplaces. They outline critical theory traditions as utilized in marketing and specify the particular role of CRT as a lens through which scholars can understand marketplace dynamics. The authors delineate key CRT tenets and how they may shape the way scholars conduct research, teach, and influence practice in the marketing discipline. To clearly highlight CRT’s overall potential as a robust analytical tool in marketplace studies, the authors elaborate on the application of artificial intelligence to consumption markets. This analysis demonstrates how CRT can support an enhanced understanding of the role of race in markets and lead to a more equitable version of the marketplace than what currently exists. Beyond mere procedural modifications, applying CRT to marketplace studies mandates a paradigm shift in how marketplace equity is understood and practiced.

Lessons on Older LGBTQ Individuals' Sexuality and Spirituality for Hospice and Palliative Care.

Hospice and palliative care are in the beginning stages of providing inclusive care to older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) patients. This inclusivity is exceedingly more pressing given the growing population of out and aging LGBTQ individuals. Hospice and palliative literature recognizes that spirituality and religion can be fraught topics for LGBTQ patients. A few resources are available to help providers give more inclusive care. Few in hospice and palliative care, however, explicitly outline the direct connection for LGBTQ elders between their sexuality and their spiritual lives. 16 LGBTQ individuals born before 1964 were interviewed in the Colorado Front Range. Keeping with the tradition of critical theory, participants were asked "is there a connection for you between your sexuality and your spirituality? if so, what?" The interviews were analyzed using a qualitative conceptual content analysis method. All 16 participants responded that there was a connection for them. The participants expanded on this connection using five themes in their answers: the sexual act itself is spiritual; their authentic LGBTQ journey as spiritual; love/attraction is spiritual; spirituality and sexuality are inseparable; and finally, noting the ineffability of the sexuality-spirituality connection.

Anomalous Forms in Computer Music

Anomalous Forms in Computer Music

Electing Economics: Election Law's Efficiency-Convergence Dilemma

We are facing a moment of unique reflection in American democracy. Data suggests that marginalized communities feel persistently ignored by political actors—on a bipartisan basis. The scale of wealth inequality is soaring to unprecedented heights. Domestic indifference to foreign interference in our elections has poisoned public confidence in the political process. Mass reckonings with institutionalized racism and police violence have rocked major cities, facing deep and violent resistance from the President and the federal government. A global pandemic disproportionately devastated Black and Brown communities, and the federal government’s response prioritized economic liberty over health and safety. Americans are reconsidering the nature of our relationship to the federal government, and the pressure for reform may now exceed any moment since the New Deal. In this setting, Iowa’s dramatic failure to efficiently administer the Democratic Presidential Caucus hardly seems worthy of a footnote in the history of 2020. Yet, at the time, it became a national story. Iowa’s failure to administer an efficient election was new—but election law’s marriage to economic efficiency is much older. Understanding the depth of efficiency’s roots in the law of democracy requires turning back to that same New Deal era. The conflict between the American Legal Realists and the laissez faire Lochnerism of the Supreme Court laid the groundwork for efficiency’s lasting role in law—and for the century of criticism that sprung up to contest it. Efficiency—and specifically, the conceptions of efficiency proffered by Chicago School Law and Economics and Virginia School Public Choice Theory—emerged victorious from those contests. But, we are facing a moment of unique reflection, and in such a moment, an opportunity arises. By looking back through efficiency’s rise, we can chart a course forward. This article offers a framework with which to do so: the efficiency-convergence dilemma. Part I builds the efficiency-convergence, outlining the intellectual history of efficiency’s role in election law. Part II builds the dilemma, highlighting critical legal theory and heterodox economics traditions that contour the normative concerns with the efficiency-convergence. Part III presents the framework. I develop a typology of efficiency arguments within election law, derived from novel primary source analysis of the legislative history for the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, along with case law and scholarship across election law. I theorize that this typology demonstrates an efficiency-convergence dilemma, functioning to institutionalize racial subordination as a neutral principle undergirding legal thought in the law of democracy. I offer a series of critiques for this efficiency-convergence, built from the critical theories discussed. Finally, Part IV offers two normative implications of the efficiency convergence. The first is to look outside the law, developing an operationalized definition of equity based on similar research in public health and public policy. The second is to highlight election law scholarship that bucks the efficiency convergence, charting a path forward. I present one such path: reimagining the right to vote as a constructive right implemented through constitutional conventions and norms and protected as an instrumental right.

Reification and the Duty to Work Through the Past: On Critical Theory and Temporality

Abstract This article focuses on the role that the notion of temporality can and should play in the tradition of Critical Theory. Following an overview of the critical analyses of time found in the works of Marx, Lukács, Weber, Adorno, Fromm, and Marcuse, the article analyzes Hartmut Rosa’s critique of social acceleration and argues that this critique lacks a firm normative basis. This basis is required, however, for one to claim why certain processes of social acceleration are wrong. It is shown that Rosa’s analyses of acceleration contain two suggestions for such a basis: autonomy understood as a narrative identity, and autonomy as defended by Honneth’s theory of recognition. After an exploration of both suggestions, in which the ideas of MacIntyre and Ricoeur are briefly discussed as well, it is argued that a combination of both may result in a specific, normative understanding of reification, which is defended against Honneth’s definition of this concept. Based on an interpretation of passages in Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and Adorno’s notion of “working through the past,” the article claims that reification should be understood as a forgetting of the narratives that have shaped the self and the social structures under which this self is formed, and therefore as the inability to recognize the temporal dimensions of the autonomous self.

Paradoxes of Rationalisation: Openness and Control in Critical Theory and Luhmann's Systems Theory

For the Critical Theory tradition of the Frankfurt School, rationalisation is a central concept that refers to the socio-cultural closure of capitalist modernity due to the proliferation of technical, ‘instrumental’ rationality at the expense of some form of political reason. This picture of rationalisation, however, hinges on a separation of technology and politics that is both empirically and philosophically problematic. This article aims to re-conceptualise the rationalisation thesis through a survey of research from science and technology studies and the conceptual framework of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. It argues that rationalisation indeed exhibits a logic of closure, namely the ‘operational closure’ of sociotechnical systems of measurement, but that this closure in fact produces the historical logics of technical reason and, paradoxically, also generates spaces of critical-political openness. This opens up the theoretical and practical opportunity of connecting the politically just to the technically efficient.

“We Don’t Got Time for Grumbling”: Toward an Ethic of Radical Care in Urban School Leadership

Purpose: This article presents a case study of a successful Black male public urban school principal, offering a counterstory to discourses of failure in urban schools. I build on scholars’ work in critical caring, the Black principalship, and radical hope to call for an expansion of narrow frameworks of effective school leadership to include an ethic of radical care within urban school leadership. Method: This study represents a counterstory in the tradition of critical race theory, centering the voice and perspectives of a Black male urban school principal. Using ethnographic research methods, this case study was based on prolonged and embedded engagement in the field including observations, informal and formal interviews, and document review. Data were collected and analyzed over a 2-year period. Findings: Five components of effective school leadership emerged from analysis of the data that, taken together, can be described as a radical care framework. These components include the folowing: (a) adopting an antiracist, social just stance; (b) cultivating authentic relationships; (c) believing in students’ and teachers’ capacity for growth and excellence; (d) strategically navigating the sociopolitical and policy climate; and (e) embracing a spirit of radical hope. Conclusion: In addition to highlighting the power of counterstories in educational leadership research, this study reinforces the critical need for leadership preparation that is grounded in antiracism and social justice, and comprises all aspects of an ethic of radical care. Furthermore, the study points to the need for targeted recruitment of Black and Latinx school leaders, particularly in urban contexts.