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CRITICAL THEORY

Critical theory, particularly from the Frankfurt School, critiques social practices and institutions to promote emancipation based on universal justice principles. Key figures like Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas emphasize the importance of culture and ideology in shaping social order, while also addressing the role of mass culture in suppressing potential for change. The theory advocates for radical democracy and expanding moral obligations beyond state borders, as seen in the works of Linklater influenced by Habermas.

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CRITICAL THEORY

Critical theory, particularly from the Frankfurt School, critiques social practices and institutions to promote emancipation based on universal justice principles. Key figures like Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas emphasize the importance of culture and ideology in shaping social order, while also addressing the role of mass culture in suppressing potential for change. The theory advocates for radical democracy and expanding moral obligations beyond state borders, as seen in the works of Linklater influenced by Habermas.

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sachin.yadav
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Critical theory

X Frankfurt school-group of thinkers who began to work together in the


1920s and 193Os.

x first generation of the Frankfurt School included Max Horkheimer, Teodor


Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse.
X subsequent generation has taken up the legacy of these thinkers and
developed it in important and innovative ways.-Jurgen Habermas
x Critical theory sets out to critique repressive social practices and
institutions in today's world and advance emancipation by supporting
ideas and practices that meet the universalist principles of justice.
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x transformative dimension -aims at changing national societies,


international relations and the emerging global society, startingfrom
alternativeideas and practices lingering in the background of the historical
procesS.

X Also influenced by the WWorks of Antonio Gramsci- cultural hegemony -


creating consent through institutions of civil society
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Key assumptions
x Culture and ideology are, in themselves, an important and powerful force
working tosupport or challenge the existing economic and social order.
x International relations (or politics) constitutes a struggle between a variety
of social groups and movements or social forces - some of whom have
interest in supporting the status quo, while others struggle to change it.
x Through political action human beings can challenge existing structures
and achieve emancipatory forms of human existence.
X
Theory should be directedtowards uncovering impediments to change
andidentifying the emancipatorypotential of certain social groups and
forces. Knowledge should be directed towards the project of human
emancipation
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x they have not been much interèsted in the further development of analysis
of the economic base of society.
x They have instead conceDtrated on questions relating to culture,
bureaucracy, the social basis and nature of authoritarianism, the structure
of the family, and on exploring such conceptsias reason and rationality as
well as theories of knowledge.
x Frankfurt School theorists have been particularly innovative in terms of
their analysis of the role of the media, andwhat they have famously
termed the 'culture industry'.
X In other words, in classical Marxist terms, the focus of critical theory is
almost entirely super structural
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Superstructure
Everything not directly to do with production:
Art Law
Family Media
Culture ldeology Politics
Religion Science
Philosophy Education

Shapes
(and maintains)

Base
Means of Production:
Tools, machines, factories, land, raw materials.

Relations of Production:
Lumpen-Proletariat, Proletariat, Labour Aristocracy,
Petty-Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie.
Private property, capital, commodities, etc.

This moves in a spiral pattern.


he base is generally
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dominant.
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.......!..........*.........

X Another key feature -critical theorists have been highly dubious as to


whether the proletariat in,contemporary society does in fact embody the
believed.
potential for emancipatory transformation in the way that Marx
commodifcation of
X Rather, with the rise of mass culture ahd the. increasing
School thinkers have argued that the
everyelement of social life, Frankfurt
simply been absorbed by the system and no longer
working class has
represents a threat to it
creation of one-dimensional man/
phrase, led to the
X Marcuse's famous
society cannot begin to conceive an alternative.
majority simply
to which the vast
1/
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x Habermas's central political point is that the route to emancipation lies


through radical democracy-that is, through a system in which the widest
possible participation is encouraged not only in word (as isthe case in
many WWestern democracies) but also in deed,
For Habermas -participation is not to be confined within the borders of a
particular sovereign state. Rights and obligations extend beyond state
frontiers.
Xx most systematic attempt to think through some of the key issues in
world politics from a recognizably Habermasian perspective has been
made by Andrew Linklater
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X Andrew Linklater has used some of the key principles and precepts
developed in Habermas's work to argue that emancipation in the realm of
international relations should be understood in terms of the expansion of
the moral boundaries of a political community
The goal is therefore to move towards a situation in which citizens share
the same duties and obligations towards non-citizens as they do towards
their fellow citizens.
Toarrive at such a situation would, entail a wholesale transformation of
the present institutions of governance.
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x howcritical theory developed within the modern discipline of IR. Antonio


Gramsci and his influence over Robert Cox and the paradigm
of production (economic patterns involved in the production of goods
and the social and political relationships they entail).
XThe second is the Frankfurt school -Jürgen Habermas in particular - and
the influence of Habermas over Andrew Linklater and the paradigm
of communication(patterns of rationality involved in human
communication and the ethical principles they entail).
X Cox focuses on contemporary redistribution struggles, Linklater turns to questions of
identity and community as more significant than economic relations in today's quest
for emancipation 20

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