Critical Theory and Libertarian Socialism: Realizing the political potential of critical social theory

✍ Scribed by Charles Masquelier

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 226
• Series: Critical Theory and Contemporary Society
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume in the Critical Theory and Contemporary Society series examines the role critical theory plays in today’s political, social, and economic crises, showing how it can help to both diagnose and remedy such problems.
Critical social theory is first revisited by exposing the affinity between Marx’s critique of political economy, the critique of instrumental reason elaborated by the first generation of the Frankfurt School, and the libertarian socialism of G.D.H. Cole. This is followed by a proposal for a radical reorganization of economic and political life and the corresponding development of emancipatory practices presupposing the reconciliation of humanity and nature. Lastly, the contemporary relevance of these institutions and practices are discussed, along with cases of contemporary forms of resistance, such as the Occupy Movement and alter-globalisation.
By bringing together the concerns of critical theory and libertarian socialism, this volume not only illustrates the practical side of critical theory, but also highlights its contemporary relevance. Researchers in political theory, social theory and political philosophy will find this an engaging work that will stimulate debates about new alternatives to existing problems.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Humanity, nature and the task of critique
Structure of the book
Notes
1 Human emancipation and labour as self-realization
Idealism, autonomy and the mediated unity of humanity and nature
Labour as mediation
Autonomy as human emancipation
On the social character of human emancipation
Concluding remarks
Notes
2 Towards the reconciliation of humanity and nature
Problematizing the primacy of the subject
From identity to the non-identical
From instrumental to aesthetic rationality
Concluding remarks
Notes
3 Realizing the transformative potential of critical theory
Rethinking the task of critical theory: The premises
Rethinking the promises of dialectical negation
Realizing the potential of dialectical negation
Concluding remarks
Notes
4 The premises of institutionalized emancipatory practice
Habermas, modernity and emancipation
Restoring communication free from domination
For a labour-mediated reconciliation
Concluding remarks
Notes
5 Human emancipation and communication
The ‘critique of instrumental reason’ versus the ‘theory of communicative action’
On the limitations of the Habermasian communicative framework
Towards a communicative framework for the reconciliation of subject and object
Concluding remarks
Notes
6 Drawing the contours of institutionalized emancipatory practice
Democracy and the reconciliation of humanity and nature
Associations and the ‘good life’
Emancipation, production and consumption
Concluding remarks
Notes
7 Critical theory, libertarian socialism and reconciliation
Reconciliation at the level of the satisfaction of needs
Associations, dialogue and the constitution of emancipatory knowledge
The ethical life of associations as a basis for a legitimate legal-political order
Concluding remarks
Notes
8 Conclusion: Critical theory, libertarian socialism and contemporary Western capitalist societies
Anatomizing neoliberal capitalism
Post-Fordism
The neoliberal capitalist state
Economic performance, consumerism and the cult of self-realization
On the socio-historical relevance of the proposed revision
Inside contemporary social movements
Libertarian socialism as actualization of potentialities
Final remarks
Notes
Bibliography
Index