Critical Theory Today

1. Front Matter

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2. On the Crisis of Critique: Reformulating the Project of Critical Theory

   • Michael J. Thompson

   Pages 1-18

3. An Anticolonial Deficit in Frankfurt School Critical Theory: A Need for a Decolonial Turn

   • Muhammad Qasim

   Pages 19-36

4. Critical Condition

   • David Gould

   Pages 37-57

5. Critical Theory, Political Modernity and Sociological Modernity

   • Darrow Schecter

   Pages 59-83

6. Erich Fromm and Contemporary Critical Theory

   • Neal Harris, Owen Brown

   Pages 85-100

7. The Uses of Marx’s Value-Theoretical Concept of Reproduction for Social Reproduction Theory

   • Rebecca Carson

   Pages 101-123

8. Abandonment or Liberation? Anorexia, Refusal of Treatment, and the Limits of Proceduralism

   • Jacopo Condò

   Pages 125-150

9. Responding to Precarity: Ethics and Mediation in Butler and Adorno

   • Luke Edmeads

   Pages 151-168

10. Re-thinking Social Transformation: Utopian Consciousness Within Critical Theory—Covid-19, “The New Normal” and “Dreams of a Better Life”

    • Lynn Alena Roth

    Pages 169-190

11. Beyond Post-Truth: Critical Theory and the Possibility of Radical Enlightenment

    • Roderick Howlett

    Pages 191-213

12. Totality, Malaise and Agitation: Towards a Critical Theory of Authoritarian Politics

    • Helge Petersen, Alex Struwe

    Pages 215-235

13. Adorno’s Exaggerations and the Limits of Social Pathology Critique

    • Paul Ingram

    Pages 237-255

14. Towards a Post-capitalist Horizon of Possibility. Mark Fisher, the Renewal of Critical Theory of Society for the Twenty-First Century

    • Paul Ewart

    Pages 257-279

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.

• Critical Theory
• Crisis
• Frankfurt School
• Politics
• Philosphy
• Culture
• Marxism
• Social Theory
• Adorno

• Social & Political Thought, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

  Denis C. Bosseau

• Humanities, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

  Tom Bunyard

Denis C. Bosseau is a Doctoral Candidate affiliated with the Research Centre for Social & Political Thought (SPT) at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. His current research (Spectres of Lenin) problematises the heritage and continued relevance of V.I. Lenin’s political realism (concrete analysis and the politico-strategic question of emancipation) seen through the prism of contemporary social movements and struggles. His most recent publications include: “The Revolt of the Maladjusted: Defacing the Currency of Social Pathology Diagnosis in Contemporary Critical Theory” in Pathology Diagnosis and Social Research - New Applications and Explorations (2021)

Tom Bunyard is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Brighton, UK, where he teaches philosophy, critical theory, cultural studies and aesthetics. He is also the author of Debord, Time and Spectacle: Hegelian Marxism and Situationist Theory (2018).