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66-547: Helen Pluckrose is a British author and cultural writer known for critiques of critical theory and social justice and promotion of liberal ethics, most notably in the grievance studies affair . Pluckrose completed a degree in English literature at the University of East London and a master's degree in early modern studies at Queen Mary University of London , with a particular focus on "the ways in which medieval women negotiated

132-485: A social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional theory oriented only toward understanding or explaining it. Wanting to distinguish critical theory as a radical, emancipatory form of Marxist philosophy , Horkheimer critiqued both the model of science put forward by logical positivism , and what he and his colleagues saw as the covert positivism and authoritarianism of orthodox Marxism and Communism . He described

198-433: A big role in your self-identity development. Agents of socialization can also affect how you see yourself individually or as part of a collective. Our identities are constructed through social influences that we encounter in our daily lives. The way you are raised to view your individuality can hinder your ability to succeed by capping your abilities or it could become an obstacle in certain environments in which individuality

264-485: A critical theorist to the extent that he was an unconventional and critical sociologist; this appropriation is similarly casual, holding little or no relation to the Frankfurt School . In contrast, Habermas is one of the key critics of postmodernism. When, in the 1970s and 1980s, Habermas redefined critical social theory as a study of communication , with communicative competence and communicative rationality on

330-747: A forklift truck driver, and their daughter. Critical theory 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville  ·  Marx ·  Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto ·  Tönnies · Veblen ·  Simmel · Durkheim ·  Addams ·  Mead · Weber ·  Du Bois ·  Mannheim · Elias A critical theory is any approach to humanities and social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to attempt to reveal, critique, and challenge or dismantle power structures . With roots in sociology and literary criticism , it argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions than from individuals. Some hold it to be an ideology, others argue that ideology

396-486: A more complex relationship that asserted the relative autonomy of cultural and political institutions, and a general determination by economic factors only "in the last instance." In 1905, German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies published his study The Present Problems of Social Structure , in which he argues that only the constitution of a multitude into a unity creates a "social structure", basing his approach on his concept of social will . Émile Durkheim , drawing on

462-529: A reaction to the growth of implicit bias training and other forms of what Pluckrose calls "critical social justice ideology" in the workplace. The group describes itself as a "non-partisan, grassroots movement advocating for liberal concepts of social justice". Counterweight launched an online advice service in January 2021, which Pluckrose described as " Citizens Advice for the culture wars". Also labelled as an anti-woke helpline, Pluckrose claims that its main purpose

528-505: A recent study describes how indigenous social structure in the Republic of Panama changed macro social structures and impeded a planned Panama Canal expansion. Marxist sociology has also historically mixed different meanings of social structure, though doing so by simply treating the cultural aspects of social structure as phenomenal of its economic aspects. Social norms are believed to influence social structure through relations between

594-450: A result, critical theory was left, in Habermas's words, without "anything in reserve to which it might appeal, and when the forces of production enter into a baneful symbiosis with the relations of production that they were supposed to blow wide open, there is no longer any dynamism upon which critique could base its hope". For Adorno and Horkheimer, this posed the problem of how to account for

660-440: A shared culture, while the latter describes differentiated parts united through social exchange and material interdependence. As did Marx and Weber, Georg Simmel , more generally, developed a wide-ranging approach that provided observations and insights into domination and subordination; competition; division of labor ; formation of parties; representation; inner solidarity and external exclusiveness; and many similar features of

726-584: A stable other". Instead, many postmodern scholars have adopted "alternatives that encourage reflection about the 'politics and poetics' of their work. In these accounts, the embodied, collaborative, dialogic, and improvisational aspects of qualitative research are clarified." The term critical theory is often appropriated when an author works in sociological terms, yet attacks the social or human sciences, thus attempting to remain "outside" those frames of inquiry. Michel Foucault has been described as one such author. Jean Baudrillard has also been described as

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792-616: A temporary moment of relatedness with some aspect of the world. Rosa describes himself as working within the critical theory tradition of the Frankfurt School, providing an extensive critique of late modernity through his concept of social acceleration . However his resonance theory has been questioned for moving too far beyond the Adornoian tradition of "looking coldly at society". Focusing on language , symbolism, communication, and social construction , critical theory has been applied in

858-516: A theory as critical insofar as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them". Critical theory involves a normative dimension, either by criticizing society in terms of some general theory of values or norms ( oughts ), or by criticizing society in terms of its own espoused values (i.e. immanent critique ). Significantly, critical theory not only conceptualizes and critiques societal power structures, but also establishes an empirically grounded model to link society to

924-424: A theory as critical insofar as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them". Although a product of modernism , and although many of the progenitors of Critical Theory were skeptical of postmodernism , Critical Theory is one of the major components of both modern and postmodern thought, and is widely applied in the humanities and social sciences today. In addition to its roots in

990-448: A theory that many use to understand critical theory, the theory of recognition . In this theory, he asserts that in order for someone to be responsible for themselves and their own identity they must be also recognized by those around them: without recognition in this sense from peers and society, individuals can never become wholly responsible for themselves and others, nor experience true freedom and emancipation—i.e., without recognition,

1056-460: A variety of other analytic perspectives. Some follow Marx in trying to identify the basic dimensions of society that explain the other dimensions, most emphasizing either economic production or political power. Others follow Lévi-Strauss in seeking logical order in cultural structures. Still others, notably Peter Blau , follow Simmel in attempting to base a formal theory of social structure on numerical patterns in relationships—analyzing, for example,

1122-723: Is addressed in a much more assertive way in contemporary theory. Another criticism of critical theory "is that it fails to provide rational standards by which it can show that it is superior to other theories of knowledge, science, or practice." Rex Gibson argues that critical theory suffers from being cliquish, conformist, elitist, immodest, anti-individualist, naive, too critical, and contradictory. Hughes and Hughes argue that Habermas' theory of ideal public discourse "says much about rational talkers talking, but very little about actors acting: Felt, perceptive, imaginative, bodily experience does not fit these theories". Some feminists argue that critical theory "can be as narrow and oppressive as

1188-490: Is known for his works Pathology of Reason and The Legacy of Critical Theory , in which he attempts to explain critical theory's purpose in a modern context. Jaeggi focuses on both critical theory's original intent and a more modern understanding that some argue has created a new foundation for modern usage of critical theory. Butler contextualizes critical theory as a way to rhetorically challenge oppression and inequality, specifically concepts of gender. Honneth established

1254-637: Is one of the remaining Marxist philosophical concepts in much contemporary critical theory. The legacy of Critical Theory as a major offshoot of Marxism is controversial. The common thread linking Marxism and Critical theory is an interest in struggles to dismantle structures of oppression, exclusion, and domination. Philosophical approaches within this broader definition include feminism , critical race theory , post-structuralism , queer theory and forms of postcolonialism . Max Horkheimer first defined critical theory ( German : Kritische Theorie ) in his 1937 essay "Traditional and Critical Theory", as

1320-825: Is the application to social work of a critical theory perspective. Critical social work seeks to address social injustices, as opposed to focusing on individualized issues. Critical theories explain social problems as arising from various forms of oppression and injustice in globalized capitalist societies and forms of neoliberal governance. Critical environmental justice applies critical theory to environmental justice . While critical theorists have often been called Marxist intellectuals, their tendency to denounce some Marxist concepts and to combine Marxian analysis with other sociological and philosophical traditions has resulted in accusations of revisionism by Orthodox Marxist and by Marxist–Leninist philosophers. Martin Jay has said that

1386-489: Is the principal obstacle to human liberation. Critical theory finds applications in various fields of study, including psychoanalysis , film theory , literary theory , cultural studies , history , communication theory , philosophy , and feminist theory . Critical Theory (capitalized) is a school of thought practiced by the Frankfurt School theoreticians Herbert Marcuse , Theodor Adorno , Walter Benjamin , Erich Fromm , and Max Horkheimer . Horkheimer described

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1452-466: The National Post , argued that any challenges to the "legitimacy [of critical theory] can be interpreted as a demonstration of their [critical theory's proponents'] thesis: the assertion of reason, logic and evidence is a manifestation of privilege and power. Thus, any challenger risks the stigma of a bigoted oppressor." Robert Danisch, writing for The Conversation , argued that critical theory, and

1518-545: The meso scale, it concerns the structure of social networks between individuals or organizations. On the micro scale, "social structure" includes the ways in which ' norms ' shape the behavior of individuals within the social system . These scales are not always kept separate. For example, John Levi Martin has theorized that certain macro-scale structures are the emergent properties of micro-scale cultural institutions (i.e., "structure" resembles that used by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss ). Likewise, in ethnography,

1584-655: The natural sciences or the humanities , through its orientation to self-reflection and emancipation. Although unsatisfied with Adorno and Horkheimer's thought in Dialectic of Enlightenment , Habermas shares the view that, in the form of instrumental rationality , the era of modernity marks a move away from the liberation of enlightenment and toward a new form of enslavement. In Habermas's work, critical theory transcended its theoretical roots in German idealism , and progressed closer to American pragmatism . Habermas's ideas about

1650-470: The Christian narrative". From the age of 17 to 34, Pluckrose worked in social care mostly providing for the personal care needs of elderly people and those with physical and learning disabilities. Alongside James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian , Pluckrose was involved in the 2017–18 grievance studies affair (also referred to as "Sokal Squared" in reference to the 1996 Sokal affair ), a project which saw

1716-498: The Oppressed , a seminal text in what is now known as the philosophy and social movement of critical pedagogy . Dedicated to the oppressed and based on his own experience helping Brazilian adults learn to read and write, Freire includes a detailed class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. In the book, he calls traditional pedagogy the " banking model of education ", because it treats

1782-420: The actions, thoughts, and beliefs of every individual human being. In terms of agents of socialization, social structures are slightly influenced by individuals but individuals are more greatly influenced by them. Some examples of these agents of socialization are the workplace, family, religion, and school. The way these agents of socialization influence your individualism varies on each one; however, they all play

1848-501: The analogies between biological and social systems popularized by Herbert Spencer and others, introduced the idea that diverse social institutions and practices played a role in assuring the functional integration of society through assimilation of diverse parts into a unified and self-reproducing whole. In this context, Durkheim distinguished two forms of structural relationship: mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity . The former describes structures that unite similar parts through

1914-432: The apparent persistence of domination in the absence of the very contradiction that, according to traditional critical theory, was the source of domination itself. In the 1960s, Habermas , a proponent of critical social theory , raised the epistemological discussion to a new level in his Knowledge and Human Interests (1968), by identifying critical knowledge as based on principles that differentiated it either from

1980-559: The binaries that underlie classic sociological and anthropological reasoning (notably the universalizing tendencies of Lévi-Strauss's structuralism). Bourdieu's practice theory also seeks a more subtle account of social structure as embedded in, rather than determinative of, individual behavior. Other recent work by Margaret Archer ( morphogenesis theory ), Tom R. Burns and Helena Flam (actor-system dynamics theory and social rule system theory ), and Immanuel Wallerstein ( World Systems Theory ) provide elaborations and applications of

2046-439: The discourse of modernity. Habermas engaged in regular correspondence with Richard Rorty , and a strong sense of philosophical pragmatism may be felt in his thought, which frequently traverses the boundaries between sociology and philosophy. Contemporary philosophers and researchers who have focused on understanding and critiquing critical theory include Nancy Fraser , Axel Honneth , Judith Butler , and Rahel Jaeggi . Honneth

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2112-433: The duality of structure and agency, in the sense that structures and agency cannot be conceived apart from one another. This permits him to argue that structures are neither independent of actors nor determining of their behavior, but rather sets of rules and competencies on which actors draw, and which, in the aggregate, they reproduce. Giddens's analysis, in this respect, closely parallels Jacques Derrida 's deconstruction of

2178-400: The earliest and most comprehensive accounts of social structure was provided by Karl Marx, who related political, cultural, and religious life to the mode of production (an underlying economic structure). Marx argued that the economic base substantially determined the cultural and political superstructure of a society. Subsequent Marxist accounts, such as that of Louis Althusser , proposed

2244-581: The economy had effectively abolished the traditional tension between Marxism's " relations of production " and "material productive forces " of society. The market (as an "unconscious" mechanism for the distribution of goods) had been replaced by centralized planning . Contrary to Marx's prediction in the Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy , this shift did not lead to "an era of social revolution " but to fascism and totalitarianism . As

2310-406: The first generation of critical theory is best understood not as promoting a specific philosophical agenda or ideology, but as "a gadfly of other systems". Critical theory has been criticized for not offering any clear road map to political action ( praxis ), often explicitly repudiating any solutions. Those objections mostly apply to first-generation Frankfurt School, while the issue of politics

2376-406: The first-generation Frankfurt School, critical theory has also been influenced by György Lukács and Antonio Gramsci . Some second-generation Frankfurt School scholars have been influential, notably Jürgen Habermas . In Habermas's work, critical theory transcended its theoretical roots in German idealism and progressed closer to American pragmatism . Concern for social " base and superstructure "

2442-423: The group submitting a number of bogus academic papers to peer-reviewed journals in cultural, gender, queer and race studies, to see if they would get published. The authors stated their goal as highlighting poor scholarship and eroding criteria in some academic fields, particularly those influenced by postmodern philosophy and critical theory . Despite criticism of the exposé as a "hoax" and "coordinated attack from

2508-580: The human subject. It defends the universalist ambitions of the tradition, but does so within a specific context of social-scientific and historical research. The core concepts of critical theory are that it should: Postmodern critical theory is another major product of critical theory. It analyzes the fragmentation of cultural identities in order to challenge modernist-era constructs such as metanarratives , rationality , and universal truths, while politicizing social problems "by situating them in historical and cultural contexts, to implicate themselves in

2574-403: The individual cannot achieve self-actualization . Like many others who put stock in critical theory, Jaeggi is vocal about capitalism's cost to society. Throughout her writings, she has remained doubtful about the necessity and use of capitalism in regard to critical theory. Most of Jaeggi's interpretations of critical theory seem to work against the foundations of Habermas and follow more along

2640-630: The interdependence common among working-class individuals can hinder workers' opportunities to succeed. In this sense, social structure may be created by the power of élites who seek to retain their power, or by economic systems that place emphasis upon competition or upon cooperation . Ethnography has contributed to understandings about social structure by revealing local practices and customs that differ from Western practices of hierarchy and economic power in its construction. Social structures can be influenced by individuals, but individuals are often influenced by agents of socialization (e.g.,

2706-423: The interests of one section of society masquerading as the interests of society as a whole. One of the distinguishing characteristics of critical theory, as Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer elaborated in their Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), is an ambivalence about the ultimate source or foundation of social domination, an ambivalence that gave rise to the " pessimism " of the new critical theory about

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2772-406: The learner from an oppressive construct of teacher versus student, a dichotomy analogous to colonizer and colonized. It is not enough for the student to analyze societal power structures and hierarchies, to merely recognize imbalance and inequity; critical theory pedagogy must also empower the learner to reflect and act on that reflection to challenge an oppressive status quo. Critical social work

2838-521: The lines of Honneth in terms of how to look at the economy through the theory's lens. She shares many of Honneth's beliefs, and many of her works try to defend them against criticism Honneth has received. To provide a dialectical opposite to Jaeggi's conception of alienation as 'a relation of relationlessness', Hartmut Rosa has proposed the concept of resonance . Rosa uses this term to refer to moments when late modern subjects experience momentary feelings of self-efficacy in society, bringing them into

2904-475: The majority and the minority. As those who align with the majority are considered ' normal ', and those who align with the minority are considered ' abnormal ', majority-minority relations create a hierarchical stratification within social structures that favors the majority in all aspects of society. The early study of social structures has considerably informed the study of institutions, culture and agency, social interaction, and history. Alexis de Tocqueville

2970-632: The modern humanities more broadly, focus too much on criticizing the current world rather than trying to make a better world. Social structure In the social sciences , social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals . Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles , with different functions, meanings, or purposes. Examples of social structure include family , religion , law , economy , and class . It contrasts with " social system ", which refers to

3036-433: The need for labour , management , professional , and military functions), or by conflicts between groups (e.g. competition among political parties or élites and masses ). Others believe that structuring is not a result of natural processes, but of social construction . Research from scholars Nicole M. Stephens and Sarah Townsend demonstrated that the cultural mismatch between institutions' ideals of independence and

3102-516: The one hand, and distorted communication on the other, the two versions of critical theory began to overlap to a much greater degree than before. Critical theory can be used to interpret the right of asylum and immigration law . Critical finance studies apply critical theory to financial markets and central banks . Critical theorists have widely credited Paulo Freire for the first applications of critical theory to education/ pedagogy , considering his best-known work to be Pedagogy of

3168-400: The parent structure in which these various structures are embedded. Thus, social structures significantly influence larger systems, such as economic systems , legal systems , political systems , cultural systems , etc. Social structure can also be said to be the framework upon which a society is established. It determines the norms and patterns of relations between the various institutions of

3234-422: The possibility of human emancipation and freedom . This ambivalence was rooted in the historical circumstances in which the work was originally produced, particularly the rise of Nazism , state capitalism , and culture industry as entirely new forms of social domination that could not be adequately explained in the terms of traditional Marxist sociology . For Adorno and Horkheimer, state intervention in

3300-498: The process of collecting and analyzing data, and to relativize their findings". Marx explicitly developed the notion of critique into the critique of ideology , linking it with the practice of social revolution , as stated in the 11th section of his Theses on Feuerbach : "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." In early works, including The German Ideology , Marx developed his concepts of false consciousness and of ideology as

3366-419: The process of collecting and analyzing data, and to relativize their findings". Meaning itself is seen as unstable due to social structures' rapid transformation. As a result, research focuses on local manifestations rather than broad generalizations. Postmodern critical research is also characterized by the crisis of representation , which rejects the idea that a researcher's work is an "objective depiction of

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3432-457: The rationalization, bureaucratization, and cultures they seek to unmask and change. Critical theory's language has been criticized as being too dense to understand, although "Counter arguments to these issues of language include claims that a call for clearer and more accessible language is anti-intellectual, a new 'language of possibility' is needed, and oppressed peoples can understand and contribute to new languages." Bruce Pardy, writing for

3498-470: The relationship between modernity and rationalization are in this sense strongly influenced by Max Weber . He further dissolved the elements of critical theory derived from Hegelian German idealism , though his epistemology remains broadly Marxist. Perhaps his two most influential ideas are the concepts of the public sphere and communicative action , the latter arriving partly as a reaction to new post-structural or so-called " postmodern " challenges to

3564-573: The right", Pluckrose and her colleagues describe themselves as "left-leaning liberals". From 2018 to 2021, Pluckrose was editor-in-chief of Areo Magazine , an opinion and analysis digital magazine exploring "a variety of perspectives compatible with broadly liberal and humanist values". She stepped down from this post in April 2021. In 2020, Pluckrose released a non-fiction book, Cynical Theories , co-authored with James A. Lindsay and published by Pitchstone Publishing . Pluckrose founded Counterweight as

3630-442: The social sciences as a critique of social construction and postmodern society . While modernist critical theory (as described above) concerns itself with "forms of authority and injustice that accompanied the evolution of industrial and corporate capitalism as a political-economic system", postmodern critical theory politicizes social problems "by situating them in historical and cultural contexts, to implicate themselves in

3696-496: The society. Since the 1920s, the term has been in general use in social science, especially as a variable whose sub-components needed to be distinguished in relationship to other sociological variables, as well as in academic literature, as result of the rising influence of structuralism . The concept of " social stratification ", for instance, uses the idea of social structure to explain that most societies are separated into different strata (levels), guided (if only partially) by

3762-449: The sociological classics in structural sociology. As noted above, social structure has been conceptualized as: Furthermore, Lopez and Scott (2000) distinguish between two types of structure: Social structure can also be divided into microstructure and macrostructure : Sociologists also distinguish between: Modern sociologists sometimes differentiate between three types of social structures: Social rule system theory reduces

3828-529: The state, religious communities, economic associations, art schools, and of family and kinship networks. However diverse the interests that give rise to these associations, the forms in which interests are realized may yet be identical. The notion of social structure was extensively developed in the 20th century with key contributions from structuralist perspectives drawing on theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss , as well as feminist, marxist, functionalist (e.g. those developed by Talcott Parsons and followers), and

3894-497: The structures of (3) to particular rule system arrangements, i.e. the types of basic structures of (1 and 2). It shares with role theory , organizational and institutional sociology , and network analysis the concern with structural properties and developments and at the same time provides detailed conceptual tools needed to generate interesting, fruitful propositions and models and analyses. Some believe that social structure develops naturally, caused by larger systemic needs (e.g.

3960-406: The student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge. He argues that pedagogy should instead treat the learner as a co-creator of knowledge. In contrast to the banking model, the teacher in the critical-theory model is not the dispenser of all knowledge, but a participant who learns with and from the students—in conversation with them, even as they learn from the teacher. The goal is to liberate

4026-480: The underlying structures in the social system. It is also important in the modern study of organizations, as an organization's structure may determine its flexibility, capacity to change, etc. In this sense, structure is an important issue for management . On the macro scale, social structure pertains to the system of socioeconomic stratification (most notably the class structure ), social institutions , or other patterned relations between large social groups . On

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4092-423: The ways in which factors like group size shape intergroup relations. The notion of social structure is intimately related to a variety of central topics in social science, including the relation of structure and agency . The most influential attempts to combine the concept of social structure with agency are Anthony Giddens ' theory of structuration and Pierre Bourdieu 's practice theory . Giddens emphasizes

4158-510: The workplace because of their gender, which would be termed a "social structural" bias, but other variables (such as time on the job or hours worked) might be masked. Modern social structural analysis takes this into account through multivariate analysis and other techniques, but the analytic problem of how to combine various aspects of social life into a whole remains. Sociologists such as Georges Palante have written on how social structures coerce our individuality and social groups by shaping

4224-450: The workplace, family, religion, and school ). The way these agents of socialization influence individualism varies on each separate member of society; however, each agent is critical in the development of self-identity . The notion of social structure may mask systematic biases, as it involves many identifiable sub-variables (e.g. gender). Some argue that men and women who have otherwise equal qualifications receive different treatment in

4290-411: Was supposedly the first to use the term "social structure". Later, Karl Marx , Herbert Spencer , Ferdinand Tönnies , Émile Durkheim , and Max Weber would all contribute to structural concepts in sociology. The latter, for example, investigated and analyzed the institutions of modern society: market , bureaucracy (private enterprise and public administration), and politics (e.g. democracy). One of

4356-471: Was to cultivate dialogue and resolve conflicts. The group published a video which, according to The Telegraph , argued that " woke " activism unfairly judges people by their gender, race and sex, and pledged to provide resources such as mental health support and "expert guidance". Pluckrose ceased working for Counterweight in 2022 but continues to support the cause. Pluckrose lives in London with her husband David,

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