Theory in Weberian Marxism: Patterns of Critical Social Theory in Lukács and Habermas

For Weberian Marxists, the social theories of Max Weber and Karl Marx are complementary contributions to the analysis of modern capitalist society. Combining Weber's theory of rationalization with Marx's critique of commodity fetishism to develop his own critique of reification, Georg Lukács contended that the combination of Marx's and Weber's social theories is essential to envisioning socially transformative modes of praxis in advanced capitalist society. By comparing Lukács's theory of reification with Habermas's theory of communicative action as two theories in the tradition of Weberian Marxism, I show how the prevailing mode of "doing theory" has shifted from Marx's critique of economic determinism to Weber's idea of the inner logic of social value spheres. Today, Weberian Marxism can make an important contribution to theoretical sociology by reconstituting itself as a framework for critically examining prevailing societal definitions of the rationalization imperatives specific to purposive-rational social value spheres (the economy, the administrative state, etc.). In a second step, Weberian Marxists would explore how these value spheres relate to each other and to value spheres that are open to the type of communicative rationalization characteristic of the lifeworld level of social organization.     

(Pre)Occupied Locations: Subverting Marginality—Reply to Commentaries

In my response to commentaries by Hartman and Sedgwick, I examine the positions from which each chose to speak. Hartman's rather light approach performs a particular function: the mentalization of anal erotic and homoerotic desire through the introduction of surplus meaning. I explore the relationship of this approach to the absence of rigorous theoretical critique in his essay. I question Sedgwick's decision to limit her critique to the confines of queer theory; this results in a constriction of meaning rather than the expansion she purports to offer. I challenge her notion of growth through mutual recognition with a model of change that is based in psychoanalytic theory and practice. Contrary to her assertion, I do not jettison danger or gender destabilization from the discourse on anal eroticism between men, but I question these as obligatory or constitutive to its meaning.     

Bourdieu, Smith and disinterested judgement

The paper presents a sympathetic critique of Bourdieu7rsquo;s work in terms of the tension between its critical intentions and its leanings towards sociological reductionism. Although Bourdieu argues against such reductionism in his methodological pronouncements, his empirical studies tend to reduce actors' putative disinterested judgements to functions of their habitus in relation to the social field and to unconscious strategies of distinction. Further, his concept of (non-monetary) forms of capital occludes the difference between use-value and exchange-value and the corresponding distinction between the pursuit of goods and the pursuit of distinction, which are vital for both explanation and critique. Moreover his suspicion of normative judgement on the part of social science and his concealment of his own normative standpoint subvert his critiques. Thus in relation to Bourdieu's analysis of the role of mis-recognition in social life I argue that this requires a delineation of the extent of justified recognition. In developing the argument I draw upon Adam Smith's analysis of moral sentiments and his critique of undeserved recognition and the pursuit of distinction. Where Bourdieu is dismissive about moral issues, Smith treats moral sentiments as irreducible to interest or instrumental action and as a significant element in the reproduction of social order. The paper concludes with some implications for the nature of critique in social theory.     

Praxis – Zuschreibung – Objektivit?t.

The article scrutinizes different arguments as against individualism that are different from arguments from emergence. What these types of arguments nevertheless share with an argument based on emergence is the idea of a decisive asymmetry: whereas individual properties have to be derived from social properties, social properties do resist to an analysis in terms of individual properties. Four types of such anti-individualistic arguments are distinguished: First, the idea that individual actions become meaningful actions only in the context of a social practice; second, the claim that action derives from processes of social attribution; third, the thesis that subjective states presuppose intersubjectivity; and, finally, the claim that actorship requires the process of social recognition as an actor. It can be shown that these types of arguments are not conclusive. Thus, an individualistic concept of social phenomena is defended. Following Max Weber, social properties are considered to be a certain class of individual properties that constitute the social world, i.e. individual properties do not necessarily depend on social practices or processes of attribution or recognition.     

Staying Alive: A Response to Alison Stone and Stephen Frosh

Alison Stone and Stephen Frosh (this issue) offered in their discussions alternative ways to read the story of Lot’s wife and through these readings have raised important questions as to how theoretical writing can intervene in cultural processes. Enriched by Stone’s suggestions, I further elaborate on the thesis that nonmatricidal relations should be thought as a transformative process, a process that integrates concrete social location with relational foundations. Following Frosh’s critique, I elaborate on the political meaning of the notion of grounded interpretation.     

Und Immer Noch Einmal: Alfred Schütz, „Die Definition der Situation“ und die (Angeblichen) Grenzen von Rational Choice

The paper is a reply to the critique of Christian Etzrodt in two points, where he was discussing the model of frame-selection which I formulated following some suggestions of Alfred Schutz on the problem of bounded rationality: (1) The model does not exclude at all the processes of the “interactive” and symbolic constitution of social situations; (2) it does in no way rely on the “rationality” of the actors alone. It does, however, assume quite a different mechanism to the assumption of “calculativeness”, usually associated with subjected-expected-utility theory, despite it is based on certain formal assumptions of this theory. The core of the framing-concept is the “match” of typical properties of the situation (i.e. “symbols”) with socially shared mental models, which are part of the identity of the actors. Quite different to the assumptions of Etzrodt, the model thus systematically takes into account the “meaning” of social action and the strength of culture in defining a situation.     

Beyond Presentism and Historicism: Understanding the History of Social Science

The revival of interest in the social scientific past has stimulated a growing literature on the methodology of the history of social science. Existing "presentist" type histories have been criticized for their "Whiggish" assumptions about scientific progress. The critique of presentism is the product of a new school of historians of social science who advocate a "historicist" historiography. My paper is addressed to this discussion and falls into three parts. First, I review the principles of presentist and historicist historiographies, relating their methodological positions to their theories of science. Second, I take up the argument of the "new historicism" in more detail, criticizing its theory of textual interpretation and its theory of social scientific development. I conclude by offering an alternative historiographic model of social scientific development based upon a theory of science that I outline.     

Omniscience at the Edge of Chaos: complexity,defences and change in a Children and Families Social Work department

ABSTRACT

This paper will explore a period of organisational change in a Children and Families Social Work team, applying ideas from complexity theory and psychoanalysis to explore the changes that occurred. In doing so it will critique the Newtonian concept of cause-and-effect linear causality, instead positing a nonlinear model of an organisation as a complex adaptive system in flux as it interacts with its environment. The paper will go on to posit that Bion’s psychoanalytic concepts of Omniscience and K Activity are self-organising forces in social care organisations, and when anxiety is not managed effectively, reductionist technical-rationale approaches to Children and Families Social Work dominate practice. It will conclude by outlining how the organisation’s effective management of anxiety through the creation of containment, created a series of organisational changes. These changes better supported the management of the complexity and uncertainty inherent in the social work task, raising possibilities of improvements in social work practice beyond the organisation.     

A socio-economic perspective on gender bias in technology

This paper examines the development of patriarchal technology within Western industrialized cultures. The approach in the analysis is based in critical theory and socialist/feminist critique. Conditioned on the Habermasian “ideal speech situation, ” it will be argued that neo-classical economics cannot meet the challenge of societal critique. The necessary conditions for an emancipatory reconciliation of technology and egalitarian, nongender-based values lies in our ability and willingness to go beyond the atomistic, economistic analysis based in Enlightenment values. This, it is argued, is beyond traditional economics since it relies on the reductionist assumption of an innate human nature which is individualistic and competitive and disregards the malleability of social institutions.Within this framework, specific aspects of technology-based gender bias are examined. These include such factors as technological design, work organization, and reproductive technologies.     

In a different mindset: Critical youth work with marginalized youth

Critical youth work is based on a dual focus, on individual psychosocial development on the one hand, and collective critical consciousness and the promotion of social justice on the other. Although in practice, critical youth work is gaining popularity as an alternative to person-centered youth work, the theoretical and empirical literature has not kept pace. This paper proposes a theory based practice model that expands the vocabulary of critical youth work. The model is grounded in the work of an innovative Israeli intervention program for marginalized youth and in poststructuralist theories. The model comprised of a three dimensions: the streets as a physical and political place, the use of counter narrative, and the role the youth workers take as social capital agents.     

Survivors of Woman Abuse

Abstract

The feminist social work and related literature on abused women has focused on women's processes of empowerment but has overlooked the question of women's movement from individual survival to collective resistance. In this feminist qualitative study, I explore the processes through which survivors of abuse by male partners become involved in collective action for social change. Using story telling as a research method, I interviewed 11 women about the processes, factors, insights, and events that prompted them to act collectively to address violence against women. I found that women's movement from individual survival to collective action entails significant changes in consciousness and subjectivity. Women's processes of conscientization are complex, contradictory and often painful because they involve political and psychic dimensions of subjectivity, protracted struggles with contradictions and conflict, and resistance to knowledge that threatens to unsettle relatively stable notions of identity. I suggest that feminist social work theory and practice must take into account three interrelated elements of women's transformative journeys: the discursive and material conditions that facilitate women's movement to collective action; the social, material and psychic costs of women's growth; and the multifaceted and difficult nature of women's journey in recognizing and naming abuse, making sense of their experiences, and acting on this knowledge to work for change. I recommend that feminist social work practice with survivors recognize that survivors can and do contribute to social change, and develop new, more inclusive liberatory models of working with survivors of abuse.     

Theorizing Meaning Construction in Social Movements: Symbolic Structures and Interpretation during the Irish Land War, 1879–1882

Though the process of meaning construction is widely recognized to be a crucial factor in the mobilization, unfolding, and outcomes of social movements, the conditions and mechanisms that allow meaning construction and cultural transformation are often misconceptualized and/or underanalyzed. Following a "tool kit" perspective on culture, dominant social movement theory locates meaning only as it is embodied in concrete social practices. Meaning construction from this perspective is a matter of manipulating static symbols and meaning to achieve goals. I argue instead that meaning is located in the structure of culture, and that the condition and mechanism of meaning construction and transformation are, respectively, the metaphoric nature of symbolic systems, and individual and collective interpretation of those systems in the face of concrete events. This theory is demonstrated by analyzing, through textual anlaysis, meaning construction during the Irish Land War, 1879–1882, showing how diverse social groups constructed new and emergent symbolic meanings and how transformed collective understandings contributed to specific, yet unpredictable, political action and movement outcomes. The theoretical model and empirical case demonstrates that social movement analysis must examine the metaphoric logic of symbolic systems and the interpretive process by which people construct meaning in order to fully explain the role of culture in social movements, the agency of movement participants, and the contingency of the course and outcomes of social movements.     

From hegemony to affinity

Drawing upon a critique of the (post)Marxist theory of hegemony and examples from contemporary activism, this article assesses new possibilities for the construction of radical alternatives within and against postmodern globalizing capitalism. It notes that many elements of the ‘newest’ social movements have taken a turn away from the universalizing conception of social change that is characteristic of the logic of hegemony as it has developed. within (post)Marxism and (neo)liberalism. Instead, these activist currents are driven by an anarchist logic of affinity. Along with this logic has come an emphasis on direct action tactics, which is discussed. with reference to a theoretical distinction between a politics of the act and a politics of demand. Although most existing paradigms of social movement analysis have not addressed. these shifts, they are implicitly acknowledged. in the concept of constituent power developed. by Michael Hardt and Toni Negri. Their work falls short, however, to the extent that it remains in other respects within the tradition of hegemonic thought. To more fully comprehend current developments, it is necessary to construct an alternative genealogy based. on anarchist theory and practice, with a focus on the tradition of ‘structural renewal’ that finds it apogee in the work of Gustav Landauer.     

EVERYDAY AFTERLIFE

In this paper I draw on Walter Benjamin's understanding of the flâneur, memory and history to discuss my recent ethnographic fieldwork on the cultural history of abandoned spaces and places in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. By utilizing Benjamin's notion of historical accumulation that is based in individual perception, I ask how abandoned spaces can create reflexive textual meaning through the process of historical accumulation in space. Additionally, I work to develop a conflux of Bakhtin's notion of the chronotope and Benjamin's theories of time, history and memory to create an understanding of abandoned space that sees isolation and depopulated locations as fertile grounds for cultural critique.

I also invoke Benjamin's writing on the figure of the flâneur in my methodological approach to anthropological fieldwork by transferring the image of the urban wanderer (the flâneur) into the context of an 1000 kilometre driving trip through Saskatchewan, Canada that I undertook in search of abandoned spaces and objects to document in writing, photography and video. Here, I discuss the ways in which Benjamin's notions of the flâneur and history/memory can be effectively integrated into the practice and theory of contemporary ethnographic inquiry.     

Grief and loss theory in social work practice: All changes involve loss,just as all losses require change

Working with and recognising grief and loss issues have long been identified as one of the core skills of social work practice. Despite its centrality, the exploration and application of grief and loss theory from a perspective other than death and dying has received sporadic attention in social work literature. This paper begins with a personal reflection from practice, which provided the catalyst writing in the first place. The concepts of grief and loss are then discussed in relation to losses other than death and dying. An analysis of historical and contemporary theories of grief and loss will then be explored, with the author advancing a theoretically expansive approach to grief and loss. This theoretical approach is one that is consistent with social work practice and is committed to diversity of experience and clients' strengths, as it adopts a framework for practice, which is constantly mindful of the context and meaning systems of social work clients.     

Labor Market Structure and Career Occupational Status Mobility: A Theoretical Model*

Sociological explanations of career or intragenerational occupational status mobility generally have not taken into explicit account the effects of labor market structure. Rooted in structural-functionalist sociological theory or neoclassical economic theories of the labor market, models typically misrepresent the process of individual occupational status mobility, primarily by including only individual characteristics. Dual labor market theory is introduced, direct as well as indirect effects of labor market structure on career occupational status mobility are outlined, and a theoretical model is presented. It is hypothesized that labor market structure will have direct effects on opportunities for career occupational status mobility that are independent of the effects of individual characteristics. Additional indirect effects are suggested: through their effects on social network structures, labor markets operate as job opportunity information filters.     

Understanding the Meanings Behind Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Are We Missing the Boat?

Despite the fact that adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has garnered a good deal of attention in the recent clinical and empirical literature, our conceptualization of this behavior continues to rely on an individualistic framework. Expanding the current theoretical model to include perspectives that focus on social context and constructed meaning is necessary, especially given the importance that the peer group and social context have for this age group. This paper proposes a theoretical framework that combines Symbolic Interactionism with Social Learning Theory in an effort to broaden our understanding of NSSI among adolescents. Implications and recommendations for social work practice are then discussed.     

Sociology and the public understanding of science: from rationalization to rhetoric

This paper contributes to the reappraisal of sociological theories of modernity inspired by the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). As much as these theories rely on received ideas about the nature of science that SSK has called into doubt, so do they rely on ideas about the public understanding of science. Public understanding of science has been assumed to conform to the monolithic logic and perception of science associated with rationalization, leading to an impoverished view of the cognitive outlook of the modern individual. Rationalization has become the basis for the construction of theoretical critique of science divorced from any clear reference to public understanding, with the result that theory has encountered considerable problems in accounting for public scepticism towards science. However, rather than question rationalization, the more typical strategy has been to propose radical changes in the modernization process, such as postmodernism and the risk society. Against this, an alternative view of public understanding is advanced drawn from SSK and rhetorical psychology. The existence of the sociological critique of science, and SSK in particular, suggests that the meaning of science in modernity is not monolithic but multiple, arising out of a central dilemma over the universal form of knowledge-claims and their necessarily particular, human and social grounding. This dilemma plays out not only in intellectual discourses about science, but also in the public's understanding of science. This argument is used to call for further sociological research into public understanding and to encourage sociologists to recognize the central importance of the topic to a proper understanding of modernity.