Critical Theory Perspective Research Articles

Corporate (social) responsibility in state-business relations from the perspective of critical state theory: a historical case of early modern China

This article presents a theoretical framework for analysing corporate responsibility through the lens of critical state theory, focusing on the dynamic interplay between state and business. Traditionally, corporate responsibility is seen as voluntary corporate actions for public welfare. However, it is increasingly viewed as integral to business strategy and subject to regulatory oversight. Utilizing Jessop’s strategic-relational approach, this study underscores the state’s role in structuring corporate behaviour, revealing how shifts in political elite networks influence corporate responsibility practices. A historical analysis of early modern China highlights these dynamics within specific national contexts characterized by developmentalism and authoritarianism, demonstrating the profound impact of state-business symbiosis on corporate responsibility. This analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of corporate responsibility in diverse political and economic settings, demonstrating how state power, corporate influence, and social welfare are mutually reinforcing and shaped by broader socio-political dynamics.

How to View Cultural Conflict in Intercultural Chinese Language Teaching Class from Freire s Critical Theory Perspective

As an international education practitioner, the author is aware of the importance of language teaching in education. However, international teachers often neglect intercultural teaching and learning in language teaching. In this article, the author uses Bourdieu s theory of cultural capital and related theories to analyse the intercultural perspective in Freire s critical theory. At the same time, the author draws on her own experience to give practical advice on teaching methods in different cultures, in relation to Freire s theory of education, which has been applied in her work.

Historia, cuidados y género: discusiones y agendas futuras para la investigación historiográfica

The article presents a general, though not exhaustive, overview of the notion of care and its presence and relevance in gender historiography, examining how historical research can inform and shape new discussions. A bibliographic and narrative review methodology is used, comparing selected studies based on their contributions and scope. Given that care is a transdisciplinary issue with significant heuristic potential, both historical topics and those from other branches of the humanities and social sciences are considered. Care is understood here both as an affective and a labor disposition, and it is from these dimensions that the main debates and problems are presented, focusing specifically on those that have had the greatest presence in gender and history studies: domestic work, feminized professions that care for others, affective communities, and maternal love. In the context of the current care crisis, it is concluded that the topic needs to be viewed broadly and its contributions revalued from a critical gender theory perspective, also considering a historiographic perspective sensitive to contexts and capable of interpretive flexibility. The article focuses on the main academic discussions held in North America and European countries, aiming to contribute to understanding the theoretical and applied scope of care and acknowledging that there is still much ground to cover. The conclusions offer an overview of the thematic lines and theoretical assumptions that could enrich future historiographical research agendas on care.

A Critical Perspective on Testimonial Injustice: Interrogating Witnesses' Credibility Excess in Criminal Trials

This paper offers a critical race theory perspective on the testimonial injustice experienced by racially minoritized criminal defendants in evidential practice. It builds off Federico Picinali’s paper, inter alia, substantiating how minoritized criminal defendants experience testimonial harm through credibility deficit, by exploring epistemic injustice to the same when prosecutorial witnesses receive identity-based credibility excess. It argues that in an adversarial criminal legal system, the testimonial injustice of credibility excess afforded racial in-group prosecutorial witnesses should be considered in tandem with the testimonial injustice of credibility deficit imposed on racial out-group defendants. Only then can the epistemic harm and resultant unfairness at trial for defendants be fully assessed. The paper advocates for expanding the definition of testimonial injustice to encompass the epistemic wrong of socially biased credibility excess and “transferred epistemic harm.” In instances of transferred epistemic harm, the harm inflicted by an epistemic wrong impacts the speaker’s interlocutor rather (or more) than the speaker themselves.

Feeling a little uneasy: A comparative discourse analysis of White and BIPOC college students’ reflective writing about systemic racism

AbstractThis critical discourse analysis compares the ways in which White and BIPOC college students discuss their experiences of an educational intervention meant to promote better understanding of systemic racism. We analyzed reflective writing produced by 11 White psychology students from a private liberal arts college in the eastern United States and 17 BIPOC students from a Human Services program at a public university in the western United States. White students engaged in whiteness discourse that distanced themselves from the realities of systemic racism and/or relieved the cognitive dissonance associated with the self‐ and group‐image threat related to learning about systemic racism. In so doing, they unwittingly upheld white supremacy. BIPOC students, in contrast, engaged an antiracist discourse that employed critiques of the social systems that produce systemic racism and destabilized dominant colorblind narratives, often by drawing on lived experience. From the Critical Race Theory perspective that the centrality of lived experience is a legitimate lens through which to analyze racial subordination, we discuss the importance of attending to the action orientation and constructed nature of discourse in antiracist education.

Nursing student perceptions of racism and health disparities in the United States: A critical race theory perspective

BackgroundLimited research has been done on nursing students’ awareness of racial disparities and their readiness to address bias and racism in clinical practice. PurposeThis study investigated nursing students' perceptions of how racial disparities affect health outcomes, including maternal outcomes, in the United States. MethodsInterpretive description was used and supported by the critical race theory as a framework to guide the data collection, analysis, and interpretation to understand participants’ perceptions surrounding racism and health disparities. DiscussionNurse educators should guide students to look beyond individual behavioral and risk factors and consider systemic issues as a leading contributors to health disparities. ConclusionThe most critical finding was the lack of participants’ understanding of systemic racism and its impact on health disparities. While they often attributed racial disparities to low socioeconomic status and lack of education, they did not understand the relationships between social determinants of health and systemic racism.

AI 거버넌스의 정의와 쟁점 및 발전 과제: 비판적 관점

In the data-driven economy, AI algorithms will eventually drive power interests and value allocation of scarce resources in terms of who gets what, when, and how. However, to date, the decision-making process and internal mechanisms of algorithm-based AI remain “a black box”. Therefore, a critical systematic analysis of the benefits and limitations of AI’s practical utility and applicability, as well as legal and institutional promotion and control measures to enhance transparency in algorithm design, is needed now more than ever. The current structural situation of human oppression, control, and domination by AI power in the name of techno-engineering-based social innovation and development in the age of digital capitalism requires a multidisciplinary approach to governance that utilizes political science, educational politics, and critical theory perspectives. This paper aims to comprehensively review the emerging AI governance definitions, issues, and development plans from critical perspectives.

A decolonial critical theory of artificial intelligence

In this paper, I argue for a normative reconstruction, from a decolonial perspective of critical theory in Brazil and Latin America, of a democratic ethos that despite its weaknesses and normative deficits is capable of fostering an increasingly deliberative, participatory, and egalitarian democracy by making extensive use of new digital technologies (comprising both AI systems and digital governance). Its argumentative core boils down to the promotion of intersectional egalitarianism (socio-economic, gender, racial-ethnic, environmental) through digital inclusion, which seems only feasible to us from a perspective capable of accommodating the normative claims of a critical decolonial theory combined with a naturalistic view of sustainability, within a research program that I dubbed “mitigated social constructionism” in response to the phenomenological deficit of normative and naturalistic theories (including critical theory and neurophilosophy). If what matters is normativity, then to avoid the divide between naturalism and non-naturalist normativity one nonfoundationalist alternative is to resort to hermeneutical and procedural accounts of normativity as helpful clues to making sense of the naturalism-normativity problem, avoiding reductionist interpretations of both naturalism (Churchland) and normativism (Parfit).

Late Modern Individualization in Light of Critical Theory (the Frankfurt School): An Essay

The article describes the dialectic of the process of individualization in modernity and late modernity from the perspective of critical theory, particularly in its classical form (Frankfurt School). This dialectic consists in the transformation of individualization as a medium of emancipation into individualization understood not only as an ideology but most of all as a productive force of neoliberal capitalism, as a principle of its functioning. The article discusses the social-cultural determinants of this transformation, and subsequently the way in which late-modern individualism in the form of self-realization is functionalized by the market and subjected to the requirements of profit and efficiency in individual areas of economic and social life in the neoliberal world. The article refers to the methodology of qualitative sociology.

Exploring the coexisting relationship between Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content (AIGC) and designer

This paper focuses on how designers can find the right balance and new foundation between themselves and Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) at a time when the current artificial intelligence trend is invading the design industry like a wave. This study uses two methods of text analysis and semi-structured interviews to explore the coexistence between AIGC and designers. The results show that, for now, AIGC can help solve some of the fundamental problems in the design process but not all of them. Almost all designers dare not underestimate the possibility of AIGC in the future, and the arrival of AIGC is already an irreversible fact. This study explores the future impact of AIGC on the creative design industry through the perspective of designers and critical theory. It provides practical inspiration and some valuable thinking for the design industry.

Exploring the Structural Inequalities of the Individualized Education Program: A Dis/Ability Critical Race Theory Perspective

Disproportionality and inequity exist in the special education services that children receive based on factors such as race, geographic location, and resources of the school system. Overrepresentation and underrepresentation are both prevalent issues and can vary by region or school district and are likely due to multiple factors. Although several areas of special education services have been examined critically, one missing piece in the literature seems to be the writing and revising of the Individualized Education Program (IEP). The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature and background of special education services and the IEP, followed by an examination of the required portions of the IEP form and where the existing law might allow for implicit biases, specifically racism, to surface in the development of this program and its implementation.

Racial and ethnic disparities in psychological care for individuals with FASD: a dis/ability studies and critical race theory perspective toward improving prevention, assessment/diagnosis, and intervention.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are among the most common neurodevelopmental disorders and substantially impact public health. FASD can affect people of all races and ethnicities; however, there are important racial and ethnic disparities in alcohol-exposed pregnancy prevention, assessment and diagnosis of FASD, and interventions to support individuals with FASD and their families. In this article we use the Dis/Ability Studies and Critical Race Theory (Dis/Crit) framework to structure the exploration of disparities and possible solutions within these three areas (prevention, diagnosis, intervention). Dis/Crit provides a guide to understanding the intersection of dis/ability and race, while framing both as social constructs. Following the Dis/Crit framework, the systemic, historical, and contemporary racism and ableism present in psychological care is further discussed. We aim to elucidate these racial and ethnic disparities within the fields of psychology and neuropsychology through the Dis/Crit framework and provide potential points of action to reduce these disparities.

Financial Subordination and Postcolonial Geographies of Renewable Energy Finance in South Africa: A Critique of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan

The renewable energy market is expanding in Africa, along with funding from the West for numerous projects on renewable energy. In this article, I problematise renewable energy finance in Africa, with a specific focus on the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan in South Africa, building on and contributing to literature on financial subordination and geographies of renewables finance. I critically analyse, through a desktop study and documentary analysis of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, how racial capitalism continues through postcolonial renewable financing for electricity generation in South Africa, driving private sector participation in the public sector, under a neocolonialist framework. First, I draw on literature focusing on race and postcolonialism in Africa regarding financing of renewable energy. Second, I critically assess South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership and Investment Plan from a critical theory perspective. I argue for an understanding of renewable energy financing through the lens of postcolonial financial subordination that not only continues colonial logic but furthers the racialisation of capitalism in South Africa along lines benefitting the West and its interests through the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, and the capitalist class in South Africa.

Modern Capitalism from the Perspective of Critical Theory of Society

The author resolves a twofold task: to give essential characteristics of the modern society and to reveal the reasons for difficulties faced by the social theory while describing it. In this regard, structural and substantive shortcomings are revealed in the traditional class approach to social realit analysis as well as in competing stratum and network-based approaches. The discourse of ‘post-capitalism’ is critically evaluated. The concept of the capitalist essence of social relations dominating at present is deduced from the statement of an extremely high level of alienation characteristic for the modern technologically developed society. The notion of consumer society is conceptually tied to the matrix of capitalism and meaningfully clarified. The author’s central idea is that today we are dealing with authentic capitalism. It is a unipolar configuration with the only, i.e. ruling, class, in the center, and a declassed social mass in the vast periphery of the center. In overcoming the alienation and dictates of capital, an important role is assigned to the procedure of self-identification of individual.

The Perplexing Bilateral Relations between Two Koreas: Finding Peace in Korean Reunification Through Critical Theory's Perspective

Despite being formerly homogeneous in terms of history, culture, language, and nation, the separation of the Korean people has led to significant contrasts in political, economic, and cultural aspects between South Korea and North Korea. Conflict resulting from these differences eventually leads to war. However, since World War II, the two Koreas have been seeking reunification in three different ways: "reunification through war," "reunification through revolution," and "peaceful reunification." These Three Concepts of Korean Reunification was driven by the distortion of the term peace. This research employed a case study method to analyze a specific historical event to gain a comprehensive understanding of peace related to the three different concepts of Korean Reunification. Peace is essential for the realization of the reunification of separated nations. The Korean reunification program is affected by the research finding that given their common ethnicity, culture, familial ties, economic complementarity, international diplomacy, humanitarian concerns, and nuclear disarmament, the reunification process between North and South Korea has the possibility for peaceful reconciliation. However, a distorted understanding of peace has created challenges in Korea Reunificationwhere peace was built on mutual distrust and fear, making achieving a positive and sustainable peace exceedingly difficult, and meaningful reunification has yet to occur.

The public sphere and democracy in transformation: Continuing the debate – An introduction

All the aspects and dimensions that can be rightfully identified as playing essential parts within the current tragedy of democracy do share a common reference point: the public sphere. In the absence of a public sphere, no political change can take place democratically. This introduction to the special issue, which continues the debate about the public sphere from a broadly understood critical theory perspective, tries to substantiate the two initial claims and briefly presents the line of argument inherent to this special issue and its contributions. The collected contributions intervene or elaborate on the following conceptional or practical problems within the nexus of democracy and the public sphere, such as the critical relations between cultural industry and post-truth democracy; the contested relationship between the public sphere and labour; epistemological challenges predating normative questions; the relevance and transformation of concrete constellations between speakers and listeners, fragmentation and polarization within the public sphere; communicative pathologies; the digitalization of communication; altered and threatened media system services to functioning democracies; displacement and commodification of communication; the need for new forms of techno-politics; problems and challenges of Open Access; and the potential transnationalization of the public sphere.

Magic and Metamodernism

Magic and Metamodernism

Understanding adults with communication disorders in Ghana: Accessing rehabilitation and support systems

Communication is pivotal to our societal experiences; therefore, the onset of a communication disorder will negatively affect an individual's social capabilities. However, in sub-Saharan African countries, there is limited public discourse on the development of individuals with communication disorders. From the perspective of critical disability theory, there have been few opportunities for adults with communication disorders to share stories about their experiences and their developmental progress. A semi-structured interview guide was designed to collect data from 23 adults with communication disorders recruited from 10 communities in three districts in a region in Ghana. The findings are thematized under the following criteria: diagnosis and rehabilitation, familial support and impact on development. The study concludes with an invitation to policymakers to prioritize the rehabilitation needs of individuals with communication disorders and a discussion on additional study implications.

Pedagogy of tolerance and violence prevention in the Arab world

ABSTRACT This article is a conceptual examination of tolerance and pedagogy with regard to the prevention of violence in the Arab world from a critical theory perspective. Tolerance is a socially and culturally bound system, indicating that any pedagogy of tolerance must be authentic to its context. Therefore, the value of adopting a nuanced Western pedagogy in the Arab world is limited. Consequently, a pedagogy of tolerance in the Arab world must incorporate its diverse codes of ethics and reasoning, and the dominant Arabic Islamic culture. However, politically constrained education systems have questionable abilities to help those previously colonised accept the negative impacts of colonialism and serve as an effective tool against ignorance-based intolerance and violence, especially since the tolerance agenda is largely driven by the formerly colonising countries. Thus, to reduce intolerance-based violence in the Arab world, the pedagogy of tolerance must depart from Western-based constructions and reflect the region’s values.

Towards inclusive public administration systems: Public budgeting from the perspective of critical race theory

AbstractWhile there is a developing consensus that governments need to address systemic racism, public administration scholarship has not played a large role in supporting policymakers who want to achieve that end. To institutionalize that effort, we analyze the budget process as a setting to identify inequities and incorporate social equity given its overarching reach across all programs and policies. This article uses the tenets of critical race theory to illustrate how to use the budget process to incorporate equity. The resulting racial equity budgeting (REB) framework has three tenets: acknowledging and correcting historic biases, increasing the voice of nondominant groups, and disrupting the status quo by ensuring equity in current policies. The REB framework suggests how public officials may apply these tenets to the stages of public budgeting, including the use of reparation statements, increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities, and reviewing the disaggregated impact of policies, among others.