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Since the linguistic turn in Frankfurt School critical theory during the 1970s, philosophical concerns have become increasingly important to its overall agenda, at the expense of concrete social-scientific inquiries. At the same time, each of the individual social sciences especially economics and psychology, but also political science and sociology have been moving further and further away from the challenge key representatives of the so-called first generation of Frankfurt School critical theorists (Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse) identified as central to the promise and responsibility of social science: to illuminate those dimensions of modern societies that prevent the reconciliation of facts and norms. As professional disciplines, each individual social science, and even philosophy, is prone to ignoring both the actuality and the relevance for research of alienation and reification as the mediating processes that constitute the reference frames for critical theory. Consequently, mainstream social-scientific research tends to progress in the hypothetical: we study the social world as if alienation, reification, and more recent incarnations of those mediating processes had lost their shaping forcewhile, in the context of globalization, their manifestations are ever more apparent, and tangible. The chapters included in this volume of "Current Perspectives in Social Theory" highlight the problematic nature of mainstream perspectives, and the growing need to reaffirm how the specific kind of critique the early Frankfurt School theorists advocated is not less, but far more important today. Contributions examine the links between political geographies and globalization; Marxism and public sociology; anti-Semitic workers and Jewish stereotypes; governmental rationality and state power; restricted eros and contemporary politics; Marcuse and the psycho-politics of transformation; contemporary theory and consumer society; and the theory of C. Wright Mills. This book includes nine chapters from some of the most respected personalities in the field and a broad and diverse look at social science and critical theory.

Frankfurt school of sociology. --- Critical theory. --- Critical social theory --- Critical theory (Philosophy) --- Critical theory (Sociology) --- Negative philosophy --- Frankfurt school --- Frankfurt sociologists --- Criticism (Philosophy) --- Philosophy, Modern --- Rationalism --- Sociology --- Frankfurt school of sociology --- Socialism --- Schools of sociology --- Critical theory --- Marxian school of sociology --- Social theory. --- Social Science --- General.

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In recent years, under the impression and the burden of globalization and neoliberalism, debates about the relationship between the theory and practice of progress - including the theory and practice of social critique - have gone through an unexpected and momentous revival, renewal and rejuvenation. This is due in large part to the proliferation of manifest crises in the early years of the twenty-first century. The terrorist attacks in September of 2001, the financial crisis of 2008 that spawned the Great Recession, the Euro crisis that began in fall 2010 - these events provided glimpses of the existing system of political economy, and opportunities to begin to grasp and reveal the ongoing reconstruction of business-labor-government relations in the early 21st century. Yet, in a variety of ways, the notions that theories and practices of rigorous social critique in and of modern societies could become outdated, or that they were based on a categorical misunderstanding of the nature of social, economic, political and cultural life in the modern world, were symptomatic of an ongoing reconfiguration of the system of political economy itself.

Social sciences --- Philosophy --- Social Science --- Political Science --- Social theory. --- Globalization. --- Sociology --- General. --- Philosophy. --- Social philosophy --- Social theory

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Since the time when Talcott Parsons pursued the project of one overarching 'general theory of society', the landscape of social theory has vastly changed, and the pluralism and multidimensionality increased tremendously. Today, with so many different approaches in and to social theory, and multiple ways of defining and describing their relationship to and relevance for the social sciences, there has been a growing danger of diversity and pluralism tipping into fragmentation, making the prospect of social scientists and sociologists being able to communicate with the expectation of reaching some kind of understanding, ever less likely. This volume presents alternative trajectories for how to take steps toward achieving a theoretically informed understanding of the present analytical and practical challenges (in terms of social, sociological, and critical theory), and looks beyond pluralism and fragmentation to the kind of roles social theorists may be playing in the future. These essays revisit the issue of common agenda (or lack thereof) in social theory and provide critical overviews by specialists working in social theory, sociological theory, and critical theory.

Social sciences --- Philosophy.

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Globalization has accelerated the process of social, political, cultural, and especially economic transformations since the 1990s. In recent decades, this has cast doubt over the validity and reliability of many working assumptions about the nature and logic of progress in modern societies, at all levels of social structure and complexity. In The Challenge of Progress, editor Harry F. Dahms and a series of contributors explore how this doubt has been magnified, looking at how the institutions and constellations between business, labor and government have begun to weaken. The essays included in this volume examine the foundations, nature and contradictions of progress in the modern era. Anchored by - but not exclusively focused on - a debate of Amy Allen's recent book, The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory (2016), the eleven essays identify, analyse and confront the challenges of progress, looking across social class, philosophy, history and culture in their analyses. For researchers and students across social theory, this is an unmissable volume confronting the present and future of our societies. Examining the choices of modern society, Dahms and contributors ask: what are the social costs of "progress"?

Progress. --- Social change. --- Globalization.

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This work contains an Introduction by Harry F. Dahms. It includes contents such as: Periodizing Globalization: From Cold War Modernization to the Bush Doctrine Robert J. Antonio and Alessandro Bonanno; Recognizing Empire: Alienation, Authority, and Delusions of Grandeur David Norman Smith; Corporate Warriors: Changing Forms of Private Armed Force in America Harry W. Isaac and Daniel M. Harrison; From Exceptionalism to Imperialism: Culture, Character and American Foreign Policy Lauren Langman and Meghan Burke; 9.11.01 and Its Global Aftermath: Empire Strikes Back? Timothy Luke. It also includes commentaries - Globalization and Social Justice: Working the Tensions of the Dialectics of National Character Karen Monkman; Neoliberalism and its Discontents: Comments on Three Views of the American Empire Barney Warf. It includes five chapters and two commentaries from some of the most respected personalities in the field. It takes a broad and diverse look at the development of globalization.

Globalization --- Social aspects. --- Political aspects. --- United States --- Foreign relations --- Global cities --- Globalisation --- Internationalization --- International relations --- Anti-globalization movement --- Globalization. --- Social Science --- Sociology --- General.