![Palestinians wait in line at the tall concrete wall separating Bethlehem and Jerusalem, waiting to cross through an Israeli security checkpoint.](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/page_header_half/public/2022-02/157773264%20cropped.jpg?h=e1f97b1d&itok=_Wvc4kHS)
Research: the role of critical thought in emancipatory social change
Understanding what it means to be critical in a world of political, societal and cultural challenges.
Summary
Research summary
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February 2019 – ongoing
The Critical Theory in Hard Times (CTiHT) project brings together researchers from different backgrounds to explore what it means to be critical in today’s world.
The research team hosts themed events to encourage debate on the role of critical thought in contemporary politics, society and culture.
This has included the challenge of decolonising critical thought from within intellectual traditions of university research and teaching shaped by colonial legacies.
More broadly, the project is looking at whether established frameworks of critical thought are fit to examine current global issues and how being critical can help move societies forward.
Researchers are also considering whether it’s possible to create a global critical theory by encouraging conversations between different schools of thought.
Research outputs
Academic papers and books
- Akram, S (forthcoming 2022) Bourdieu, Habitus and Field: An Ontological Approach. London: Palgrave Macmillan
- Akram, S (2019) Re-thinking Contemporary Political Behaviour: The Difference that Agency Makes London: Routledge
- Akram, S (2017) Representative bureaucracy and unconscious bias: Exploring the unconscious dimension of active representation Public Administration, 96 (1) pp 119-133
- Akram, S (2016) (Re)Conceptualising the Third Face of Power: Insights from Bourdieu and Foucault Journal of Political Power, 8 (3) pp 345-362
- Akram, S and Hogan, A (2015) On Reflexivity and the Conduct of the Self in Everyday Life: Reflections on Bourdieu and Archer British Journal of Sociology, 66 (4) pp 606-625
- Akram, S (2014) Recognising the 2011 UK Riots as Political Protest: A theoretical framework based on agency, Habitus and the pre-conscious British Journal of Criminology, 54 (3) pp 375-392
- Akram, S (2012) Fully Unconscious and Prone to Habit: The Characteristics of Agency in the Structure and Agency Dialectic Journal for the Theory for Social Behaviour, 43 (1), pp 45-65
- Jackson, R (2020) Revisiting Gramsci’s Notebooks Leiden: Brill / Chicago: Haymarket
- Jackson, R (2021) ‘Disfigurations’ of Democracy? Pareto, Mosca and the Challenge of ‘Elite Theory’ Topoi
- Jackson, R (2019) Violence and Civilisation: Gramsci, Machiavelli and Sorel in, Rae, G and Ingala, E (eds) The Meanings of Violence: From Critical Theory to Biopolitics. Oxon: Routledge, pp 48-64
- Schmid, D (forthcoming) ‘The Possibility of Critical Theory in International Relations’ Palgrave Studies in International Relations
- Bird, G and Schmid, D (2021) Humanitarianism and the ‘Migration Fix’: On the Implication of NGOs in Racial Capitalism and the Management of Relative Surplus Populations Geopolitics
- Schmid, D (2018) The Poverty of Critical Theory in International Relations: Habermas, Linklater and the failings of cosmopolitan critique European Journal of International Relations, 24:1
- Giladi, P (forthcoming 2023) ‘The ‘Rabble’, the “severe style”: Hegel’s Critical Theory?’, in S. Rand (ed.) Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’. New York: Routledge
- Giladi, P (forthcoming 2022) ‘Epistemic Exploitation and Ideological Recognition’, in Giladi, P and McMillan, N (eds) Epistemic Injustice and the Philosophy of Recognition. New York: Routledge
- Giladi, P and McMillan, N (eds) (forthcoming 2022) Epistemic Injustice and the Philosophy of Recognition. New York: Routledge.
- Giladi, P (2020) The Dragon Seed Project: Dismantling the Master’s House with the Master’s Tools?, in Giladi, P (ed) Hegel and the Frankfurt School. New York: Routledge
- Giladi, P (2020) Hegelian Sittlichkeit, Deweyan Democracy, and Honnethian Relational Institutions: Beyond Kantian Practical Philosophy, in Gledhill, J and Stein, S (eds) Hegel and Contemporary Practical Philosophy: Beyond Kantian Constructivism. New York: Routledge
- Giladi, P (2018) Epistemic Injustice: A Role for Recognition? Philosophy and Social Criticism 44: 141-158
Team
Contact
Contact us
For enquiries about the network or its events, you can contact members of the research team or email the network administrator.