<i>The Specter of Babel: A Reconstruction of Political Judgement</i>

Harris, Neal

doi:10.1080/07393148.2022.2146287

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“…This theoretical formulation produced a research agenda in which poverty and alienation became results of 'second-order disconnects' in the heads of subjects, rather than results of irrationalities within the capitalist economic system itself (Harris, 2019). This has widely been presented as leading to the 'domestication of Critical Theory', hampering the efficacy of the research programme and betraying its socialist politics (Thompson, 2016(Thompson, , 2020.…”

Section: Gorz and Contemporary Critical Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

André Gorz and contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory: Alienation, eco-socialism and post-productivism

Harris

García

Ford

2023

Journal of Classical Sociology

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We argue that Gorz’s work offers a nuanced engagement with alienation that is instructive for contemporary social theory. In keeping with Gorz’s broader politics, we contend that the utility of his framing of alienation derives from his insistence that progressive critique must challenge the ideal of productivism. We start the paper by presenting a sympathetic reconstruction of Gorz’s understanding of alienation. Next, we explicitly detail the strengths his approach carries for furthering sociological research today. We then reinforce this point by arguing that Gorz’s work offers particularly valuable theoretical resources for contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory, in which the study of alienation has been somehow hampered by the ascent of ‘recognition theory’. While not sharing all the methodological commitments of first-generation Critical Theorists, Gorz was well versed in Frankfurt School scholarship and is therefore an apposite interlocutor to engage ‘third-generation’ Critical Theory. Gorz’s insights are thus shown to be important for furthering contemporary social theory, and in particular, for helping to combat the unsustainable productivism of neoliberal capitalism.

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Section: Gorz and Contemporary Critical Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%