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Critical Theories and Social Critique

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Resisting Neoliberal Capitalism in Chile

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

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Abstract

Taking the ‘return of Marx’ as a symptom of the renewal of social critique, Rodríguez explores three themes within the field of contemporary critical social theory which are useful for constructing a concept of social critique: utopia, recognition and disagreement. Focusing on how authors such as Ruth Levitas, David Harvey, Eric Olin Wright and Fredric Jameson tackle the issue of utopia, examining the limits and analytical possibilities of Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition, and analysing the shortcomings of Rancière’s politics of aesthetics, Rodríguez advances a three-dimensional concept of social critique. The chapter provides the rationale for using such a concept to account for critical social theories and social movements’ practices of resistance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘The ignorant person will learn by himself what the master doesn’t know if the master believes he can and obliges him to realize his capacity: a circle of power homologous to the circle of powerlessness that ties the student to the explicator of the old method (to be called from now on, simply, the Old Master)’ (Rancière 1991, p. 15).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Juan Pablo Rodríguez

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  1. Juan Pablo Rodríguez
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Correspondence to Juan Pablo Rodríguez .

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Rodríguez, J.P. (2020). Critical Theories and Social Critique. In: Resisting Neoliberal Capitalism in Chile. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32108-6_2

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