SUBJ.

CODE: AS 1 Developing from this, critical theory also considers how power and oppression can operate
NAME: Selected Theories in the Applied Social Sciences in more subtle ways across the whole of society. Critical theory does not seek to actively
TEACHER: Jan Joseph Rivera bring about revolution, as the possibility for a revolution in the years post-World War Two
DATE: WEEK 7 was unlikely. Whilst critical theorists are by no means opposed to revolution, their focus lies
TOPIC: SOCIAL SCIENCE THEORY: THEORIES TO EXPLAIN THE WORLD AROUND US more in identifying how capitalist society and its institutions limits advancement of human
civilization. In this respect, conflict theorists see more opportunities for praxis than classical
Learning Objectives: Marxists.
After reading this Chapter, you should be able to:
 understand, apply, and evaluate core social science values, concepts, and theories, which can help inform Critical theory observes how the Enlightenment ideals of freedom, reason, and liberalism
and guide our understanding of how the world works, how power is defined and exercised, and have developed throughout the first half of the 1900s. Ultimately, critical theorists see that
 how we can critically understand and engage with these concepts when examining the world around us. reason has not necessarily progressed in a positive way throughout history. In fact, reason has
developed to become increasingly technical, interested in classifying, regulating, and
CONFLICT THEORIES standardizing all aspects of human society and culture. German philosopher Theodor Adorno
Conflict theories focus particularly on conflict within and across societies and, thus, are particularly (1903-1969) thought that Nazi Germany and the holocaust is a devastating example of the
interested in power: where it does and doesn’t exist, who does and doesn’t hold it, and what they do or potential evils of rationality if developed without a critical perspective.
don’t do with it.
Another, less extreme, example of this tendency toward standardization is in the production of art
 Karl Marx (1818-1883), believed that the primary site of conflict was capitalism. and culture. Big budget films, typically in the superhero or science fiction genre, all appear to be
→ In Marx’s view, social ills emanated particularly from what he described as an upper- and virtually identical: extravagant special effects, epic soundtracks, and relatively simple plots.
lower-class structure, which had been perpetuated across multiple societies (e.g., in ancient societies However, this is not to say that such films are of a poor quality. Rather the similarity and
in terms of slave owners/slaves, or in pre-Enlightenment times between the feudal popularity of these films indicates a homogenization of culture. If culture is merely the
peasantry/aristocracy). reproduction of the same, how can society progress beyond its current point?
→ He saw capitalism as replicating this upper/lower class structure through the creation of a bourgeoisie
(upper class, who own the means of production) and proletariat (lower class, who supply labour to the This critique of the development of reason throughout the 20th century does not mean that we
capitalist market). Marx also talked about a lumpenproletariat, an underclass without class must abandon reason entirely. To do so would be to discount the vast wealth of knowledge that
consciousness and/or organized political power. Classical Marxism takes a macro lens: it is humanity has come to grasp, as well as prevent further knowledge production. Instead, critical
particularly concerned with how power is invested in the social institution of the capitalist economy. theorists argue that reason should be critiqued to uncover what has been left out of its
In this sense, classical Marxism represents a structural theory of power. development thus far, as well as open up the possibility for a more free, progressive form of
→ Marx argued that the only way for society to be fairer and more equal was if the proletariat was society.
to rise up and revolt against the bourgeoisie; to “smash the chains of capitalism”!
→ Thus, he strongly advocated for revolution as a means of creating a fairer, utopic society. He stated, At its core, then, critical theory can be thought about as being an additional theoretical lens
“Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it” through which we can look at and understand the social world around us. In tune with
(Marx 1968: 662). Nevertheless, a series of revolutions in the early 20th century that drew on Marxist Flyvbjerg’s (2001) conception of phronetic social science, critical theorists are also
thinking resulted in power vacuums that made way for violent, totalitarian regimes. concerned with disrupting the systems they observe as a means of achieving social change.
 Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), a political philosopher, argued in On the Origins of Totalitarianism. On Critical theory urges us to recognise, understand and address how capitalist society
this basis, subsequent conflict theorists (and critical theorists) have tended towards advocating for more reproduces itself and limits the free organisation of human beings.
incremental reforms, as opposed to revolution.

GRAMSCI AND CULTURAL HEGEMONY CRITICAL RACE THEORY

In addition to Marx, critical theory utilised the work of Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci, Critical race theory applies a critical theory lens to the notion of race, seeking to
specifically his concept of ‘Cultural Hegemony’. When we refer to ‘hegemonic’ social norms, we’re understand how the concept of race itself can act as a site of power and oppression.
referring to social norms that are regarded as ‘common sense’ and thus, which overshadow and suppress
alternative norms. Hegemonic norms typically reflect the values of the ruling classes (in Marxist terms, the Arising from the work of American legal scholars during the 1980s (including key thinkers like
bourgeoisie). Derrick Bell [1930-2011] and Kimberlé Crenshaw [1959-]), it originally sought to
understand and challenge “the ways in which race and racial power [were]… constructed
and represented in American legal culture and, more generally, in American society as a whole.” and disproportionately predominant, have the key roles, and constitute the norm, the
(Crenshaw et al. 1995: xiii). ordinary and the standard of womanhood in Australia” (Moreton-Robinson 2000: xxv).

In particular, it questioned whether the civil rights afforded to African Americans in the aftermath of the
civil rights movement had made a substantive impact on their experiences of social justice. Critical race POSTMODERN CRITIQUE OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY
theorists argued that more needed to be done; that civil rights had not had the desired impacts because Postmodernism rejects the distinct, conceptual bounds of ‘race’ and racialised identities. Instead,
(amongst other reasons) they: it sees race itself as a social construction, which should be questioned and disrupted, thereby
leading to new insights that aren’t constrained by socially constructed definitions of race.
(a) were imagined, shaped and brought into being by (predominantly) white, male middle- or upper-class
lawyers, and thus, were only imagined within the bounds of white ontology, Kwame Anthony Appiah, for example, seeks to “probe the very definitions of race itself. He
bypasses the empirical question of whether racism exists to ask the theoretical question of
(b) did not move beyond race – race still mattered, and what race and racism are” (in Chong-Soon Lee 1995: 441)

(c) implicitly perpetuated white privilege (e.g. they were constrained to only imagine redress and justice within Critical or radical criminology?
the existing oppressive, white hegmonic system). Radical criminology is rooted in the Marxist conflict tradition and sees the capitalist
economy as being central to the definitions of crime (arrived at by the bourgeoisie) that
Crenshaw (1995: xiii) writes that, although critical race scholars’ work is heterogenous, they are constrict, control and suppress the working classes (proletariat).
nevertheless united by the following common interests:
In contrast (or in addition to), critical criminology is interested in more than just class
1. “The first is to understand how a regime of white supremacy and its subordination of people of color have relations and also sees different opportunities for praxis – tending to favour a more
been created and maintained in America, and, in particular, to examine the relationship between that social incremental approach to social change as opposed to widespread revolution (Bernard 1981)
structure and professed ideas such as ‘the rule of law’ and ‘equal protection’.”
POST-STRUCTURALISM
2. “The second is a desire not merely to understand the vexed bond between law and racial power but to change Post-structural accounts of conflict and power can take a macro and micro lens. They see
it.” power as transcending social structures, like social institutions (e.g., the state, the economy)
and instead being all around us at all times. It challenged the tenets of structuralism, which
In Australia, scholars have also taken up aspects of a critical race lens to understand how privilege is bound up had previously held sway over the interpretation of language and texts in the humanities and the
with race. As Moreton-Robinson (2015: xiii) puts it, in Australia: study of economies and cultures in the social sciences.

Race matters in the lives of all peoples; for some people it confers unearned privileges, and for others it is the Post-structuralism expresses the belief that individual meaning and values are taken from their
mark of inferiority. Daily newspapers, radio, television, and social media usually portray Indigenous peoples as milieu and the common meanings of a group of individuals, so that their reality is contextualized
a deficit model of humanity. We are overrepresented as always lacking, dysfunctional, alcoholic, violent, needy, and socially constructed, and mediated by language and discourse.
and lazy… For Indigenous people, white possession is not unmarked, unnamed or invisible; it is hypervisible…
It refers to a way of thinking that emphasizes the radical uncertainty of knowledge (particularly
Crenshaw has been crucial in also stressing the key importance of understanding how race can also knowledge in language) and posits that “truth” is not a fixed concept, but instead constantly
intersect with other aspects of social identity, such as gender, to produce a ‘double’ or ‘triple’ oppression. changes based on your cultural, political, social, and economic position in the world.

In Australia, Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s 2000 book, Talkin’ up to the white woman, was also Types of Post-Structuralism:
crucial in understanding how Australian feminism could also be oppressive of Indigenous Australian 1. The first type, called for the purposes of this article 'poststructuralism,' consists of the work of
women by not seeing and hearing them or the specific issues they face/d. Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean-François Lyotard. It emphasizes the diverse and local
→ She called for the need for “white feminists to relinquish some power, dominance and privilege in nature of the practices that make up our experience, and it seems to be tacitly committed to the
Australian feminism to give Indigenous women’s interest some priority” (Moreton-Robinson 2000: principle of antirepresentationalism.
xxv). This emphasised that an intersectional lens was needed to acknowledge the different but 2. The second type, called deconstruction, consists of the work of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel
cumulative impacts of both racial oppression and sexism. At the centre of this argument is the reality Levinas. It emphasizes an otherness in language that cannot be brought to presence and the
that “all white feminists [in Australia] benefit from colonisation; they are overwhelmingly represented strategies of exclusion that language itself brings to bear upon this otherness.
 Michel Foucault (1926-1984), for example, argued that power is everywhere and acts upon us to modern subject was thrown into a void and thus becomes fragmented, fluid and plural
shape our identities, bodies, behaviours, and being. in the postmodern. No one truth exists anymore and the certainty of facts becomes
→ In terms of a liberal democratic society, therefore, where coercive (‘sovereign’) power is only exerted disputed and muddied once more.
by the state under certain specific circumstances, Foucault argued that the state otherwise uses its → Thus, postmodernity is about scepticism, deconstruction and questioning rather
power to create ‘responsibilised’ citizens who absorb hegemonic (i.e. authoritative/dominant) than offering answers and solutions.
social norms and use these to govern themselves. This relates to what Fairclough (1995: 257) → This has made it a controversial theory or topic as it offers little in the way of hope for
referred to as power by consent: a better world, indeed it is often seen as dystopic. Inherent in many postmodern
critiques of current society is a critique of (late) capitalism and consumer or mass
We live in an age in which power is predominantly exercised through the generation of consent culture that pervade every aspect of our lives, whilst others focus on technology and its
rather than through coercion… through the inculcation of self-disciplining practices rather than pervasive intrusion into our daily lives.
through the breaking of skulls (though there is still unfortunately no shortage of the latter).
Basically, postmodernism is the asking of questions against the societal social norms that many
Foucault was also particularly interested in the link between power and knowledge. He argued that those who of us follow. Questioning power houses, and how society is structured. This is where all the
hold the power tend to construct knowledge and ‘truth’ in certain ways, which can reinforce their power critics came in. Its heart is a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a
by, for example, perpetuating certain social norms. problematic relationship with any notion. This emphasizes the diversity of human experience and
multiplicity of perspectives. Postmodernists believe that there can be no definite truth in
This is elaborated on by Watts and Hodgson (2019) in reading 5.2, where they describe Foucault’s conception science, only a large number of “narratives” and “perspectives.”
of power/knowledge as follows:
The difference between modernism and postmodernism is that modernism is focused on the
Truth is not neutral or objective, and is not simply a thing that can be verified scientifically because its ‘truth individual, while postmodernism is focused on the collective. Modernists believed that the
value’ is dependent on the operation and circulation of power (think, for example, the oft-quoted phrase that individual was the best source of knowledge, while postmodernists believe that knowledge is
‘truth is whatever the powerful say it is’). In the context of the human and social sciences, power creates produced collectively through discourse. In the eyes of postmodernism, The “self” is a myth and
knowledge and is also a force for the translation of knowledge of and about human beings into practice … largely a composite of one’s social experiences and cultural contexts — it is even an Ideology
For example, the moment we speak into existence the concept of something as commonplace as ‘human being’ (Faigley, 1993).
or ‘human rights’ or ‘social justice’ we are using some form of power (truth) to render such things thinkable
and knowable as things in the world (Watts and Hodgson 2019: 85-86). Modernism had held that logic and reason were universally valid, and that they could be applied
to any domain of knowledge. Postmodernists however, view even logic and reason as merely
POSTMODERNISM conceptual constructs applicable only within their respective intellectual traditions.
Modernism describes the social upheaval and major changes of 20th century life. It is marked by
processes of industrialisation, rationalisation and bureaucratisation – in short a world in which the EXISTENTIALISM
sciences seemed to provide ever more answers and ultimate truths about the world and us. Is a philosophical movement that emerged in the 19 th and 20th centuries, particularly in Europe.
It focuses on exploring the nature of human existence, individuality, and the inherent
Modernism or modernity was also about hope for a new society, unfettered technological and material progress meaninglessness or absurdity of life.
and, with advances in scientific fields, led to longer lives and new and exciting materials to make new things to
make life easier (think household machines). It was also punctured by some key social movements that brought It is a complex philosophy emphasizing the absurdity of reality and the human responsibility to
the world to the brink of destruction in the epic fight over what ultimate truth should prevail. make choices and accept consequences. It teaches us that life is ultimately meaningless. This
may seem like a negative thing, but it can actually be quite freeing. It also encourages us to face
The key political ideologies of fascism, socialism and liberalism clashed in the second World War over their death and our own mortality head-on.
different visions for a new world order. In the post war climate of a new stand-off between
socialism/communism and liberalism or the Soviet bloc and ‘the West’ many writers, academics and artists It is also a philosophical and literary tendency that typically displays a dismissal of abstract
became disillusioned with the modernist project. Slowly critiques of these universalising truths and meta- theories that seek to disguise the untidiness of actual human lives and emphasizes the subjective
narratives came to think of this time as a time of postmodernism. realities of individual existence, individual freedom, and individual choice.
 Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) defined postmodernism as the ‘incredulity towards meta- EXISTENTIALIST:
narratives’  a person who subscribes to the philosophical movement known as existentialism.
→ he meant that increasingly, people were no longer persuaded by grand or master narratives  Existentialists are concerned with ontology, which is the study of being.
about themselves, a particular nation, people or even humanity. The singular, stable, coherent
THEMES OF EXISTENTIALISM
1. Freedom - Existentialists believe that humans are free to choose their own paths in life and that they are
responsible for their own choices.
2. Choice - Existentialists believe that humans have the power to choose their own lives and that they are
responsible for their own actions.
3. Responsibility - Existentialists believe that humans are responsible for their own choices and actions.
4. Anxiety And Dread - Existentialists acknowledge the anxiety that arises from the realization of life's
uncertainty and the responsibility to make meaningful choices. This existential anxiety is considered a
fundamental aspect of human existence.
5. Authenticity - Existentialism encourages individuals to be authentic, true to themselves, and make choices
aligned with their own values and beliefs, rather than conforming to societal norms or expectations.
6. Absurdity - Existentialists often highlight the absurdity of life, the idea that life lacks inherent meaning or
purpose. This acknowledgment of the absurd can lead to philosophical reflection and personal growth.
7. Individuality - Existentialism celebrates the uniqueness of each individual. It rejects the notion of people
as mere products of their environment or social conditioning and emphasizes the importance of personal
agency.
8. Death - Existentialism often grapples with the inevitability of death and its impact on how people live their
lives. The awareness of mortality can intensify the quest for meaning.

Existentialism would encourage this individual to reflect on their own values, desires, and sense of
authenticity. They would consider questions like: "What do I truly value in life?", "What gives my life meaning
and purpose?", Am I willing to take responsibility for my choices, even if they go
against societal expectations?"

Existentialism is important because it provides a philosophical framework for exploring fundamental questions
about human existence, individuality, and the search for meaning. It challenges established norms and
encourages individuals to take responsibility for their lives, fostering personal growth, critical thinking, and a
deeper understanding of the human condition.