IV ISA Forum of Sociology (February 23-28, 2021)

JS-40

Critical Theory and the Diagnosis of the Present: What World Do We Live in? Part 1

Abstract Submissions Closed

RC35 Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (host committee)
RC16 Sociological Theory

Language: English

Session Type: Oral

The contemporary world appears to be riven with problems, conflicts and contradictions. One can point without difficulty to the current crisis of globalization and the neoliberal order, the recurrent outbursts of protests in various parts of the world and the rise of new forms of authoritarianism. However, it is necessary to ask whether the broad recognition of these tendencies is matched by compelling social theoretical diagnoses of the times. In this respect, one can compare the current discussions with those of the classical sociological theorists, who offered wide ranging views on modernity and its crises. Owing to its distinctive methodology of immanent critique, the Frankfurt School tradition of Critical Theory has systematically put forward diagnoses of the times, a task that has been taken up in different ways by its first, second, third and fourth generations. These diagnoses seek to explain the current state of social relations and how the present phase of capitalist modernization generates social pathologies, unfolding social conflicts, and political struggles. Papers are invited that explore the questions of how established Critical Theory diagnoses of the times can be built upon and whether subsequent social theoretical developments warrant a reformulation of their methodological foundations. Is it still possible, for instance, to provide an overarching and global diagnosis of the present? Why have the normative-utopian and analytical-explanatory elements of diagnoses so often come apart? How should the recent Critical Theory diagnoses of the times be assessed in light of the unique challenges of the present?