New book: Critical Theory Today

Critical Theory Today. 

On the Limits and Relevance of an Intellectual Tradition

Ed. by Denis C. Bosseau & Tom Bunyard 

(Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

279 pages

Description

This book considers whether critical theory is up to the task of addressing our contemporary crises, including the question of ‘post-truth’ discourse, psycho-social pathologies, the rise of right-wing populism, the Covid-19 pandemic, the anticolonial deficit in critical theory, and the neo-liberal management of the academy. The contributors offer a series of timely and complex reflections on the nature of critical theory, its role in contemporary society, and its various developments since the early twentieth century. In doing so, they analyse a variety of contemporary issues that, through critical reflection, can help us to navigate these problems. This volume seeks to highlight problems and possibilities within this field of thought, and endeavours to contribute towards reconsidering its capabilities and relevance.

The book is based on papers presented at a conference at the University of Brighton in November 2019: "Critical Theory in (a Time of) Crisis".

Contents [Preview] 

* On the Crisis of Critique: Reformulating the Project of Critical Theory; Michael J. Thompson [PDF]

* An Anticolonial Deficit in Frankfurt School Critical Theory: A Need for a Decolonial Turn; Muhammad Qasim 

* Critical Condition; David Gould 

* Critical Theory, Political Modernity and Sociological Modernity; Darrow Schecter 

* Erich Fromm and Contemporary Critical Theory; Neal Harris and Owen Brown 

* The Uses of Marx’s Value-Theoretical Concept of Reproduction for Social Reproduction Theory; Rebecca Carson 

* Abandonment or Liberation? Anorexia, Refusal of Treatment, and the Limits of Proceduralism; Jacopo Condò 

* Responding to Precarity: Ethics and Mediation in Butler and Adorno; Luke Edmeads 

* Re-thinking Social Transformation: Utopian Consciousness Within Critical Theory; Lynn Alena Roth 

* Beyond Post-Truth: Critical Theory and the Possibility of Radical Enlightenment; Roderick Howlett 

* Totality, Malaise and Agitation: Towards a Critical Theory of Authoritarian Politics; Helge Petersen and Alex Struwe 

* Adorno’s Exaggerations and the Limits of Social Pathology Critique; Paul Ingram 

* Towards a Post-capitalist Horizon of Possibility. Mark Fisher, the Renewal of Critical Theory of Society for the Twenty; Paul Ewart