1. CRITICAL THEORIES
Dr. Mrs. Anisa Mujawar

2. Critical Theory Why “critical theory”? Critical of what?
Current social conditions
Standard social science

3. Institute for Social Research (“Frankfurt School”)
Established in 1921
Marxist studies and problem of anti-Semitism

4. Interests of Critical Theorists
Critical Marxism
Alienation and domination
False consciousness of proletariat

5. Major Ideas of Critical Theorists
Subjective vs. objective reason
Rejection of positivism
Social analysis for social emancipation
Role of consumption in modern society
Concept of reification

6. Major Ideas of Critical Theorists
Influence of Freud
“social unconscious”
concept of repression
role of family in reproduction of class structure
Stages of capitalism
Interest in culture

7. Major Ideas of Critical Theorists
Herbert Marcuse
surplus repression and the “great refusal”
sexual liberation as path to social emancipation

8. Critique of Critical Theory
Orthodox Marxist view: attention to culture is distraction; should stay focused on economic issues
Critical theorists: base/superstructure model is flawed; economy and culture are deeply interconnected

9. Jürgen Habermas (1929- ) Grew up under Nazism
Graduate work in philosophy
Main focus: transform critical theory into positive approach
Interest in language and communication
Distorted communication
Undistorted communication

10. Habermas
Weberian concern with penetration of instrumental rationality into all areas of social life
Solution: “ideal speech situation”
Characteristics:
Open to all
Equal rights of expression
Rationality will prevail

11. Habermas
Public sphere: realm of deliberation, situated between economy and state (civil society)
Decline of public sphere in late capitalism
Example: rise of media conglomerates

12. Critiques of Habermas Assumptions about human nature and motivations
Ideal speech situation is utopian
Postmodern critique: misplaced faith in rationality

13. Habermas’s Vision of Future
Optimism (cf. Marx)
Contrast to Weber, other critical theorists

14. Question: Is capitalism still threatened by crisis?
“What Does a Crisis Mean Today? Legitimation Problems in Late Capitalism”
Question: Is capitalism still threatened by crisis?
Features of late capitalism:
Economic competition replaced by oligarchies
State intervention in economy
Legitimation system (formal democracy w/o real participation)
Traditional classes less important

15. 3 global crises of late capitalism:
“What Does a Crisis Mean Today? Legitimation Problems in Late Capitalism”
3 global crises of late capitalism:
Environmental crisis
Alienation
Nuclear annihilation
Role of state and possible crisis
Output crisis (efficiency crisis)
Input crisis (legitimation crisis)

16. “What Does a Crisis Mean Today
“What Does a Crisis Mean Today? Legitimation Problems in Late Capitalism”
Role of culture
Cultural traditions made relative and political
“Colonization of the lifeworld”  alienation
Declining sense of meaning

17. “What Does a Crisis Mean Today
“What Does a Crisis Mean Today? Legitimation Problems in Late Capitalism”
Motivation crisis
Declining belief in performance ideology
Vague individual preferences
Declining importance of exchange value orientation
Main point: crisis still inherent in capitalism, takes a new form under late capitalism

18. In-Class Writing
According to Dandaneau, why didn’t the deindustrialization of Flint in the 1970s and 1980s result in a worker uprising?
(Think about Habermas’s ideas about late capitalism and how it differs from the kind of capitalism Marx wrote about.)

19. Reification and false consciousness
Ideological framing of deindustrialization by those aligned with power
Economic problems displaced into the political/governmental sphere
Motivation crisis
Colonization of the lifeworld