Critical Theory in the Twenty-First Century

Darrow Schecter is Reader in the School of History, Art History and Humanities, University of Sussex, UK. He has written books and articles on social and political thought, including Beyond Hegemony (2005); The History of the Left From Marx to the Present: Theoretical Perspectives (2007), and Critique of Instrumental Reason from Weber to Habermas (2010). He teaches history and political theory at the University of Sussex.

• 1. Introduction2. Chapter 1: Dialectics, De-Naturalisation and Social Differentiation (I): From the Public Sphere to the Emergence of Civil Society3. Chapter 2: Dialectics, De-Naturalisation and Social Differentiation (II): From the Cognitive Content of Aesthetics to Critical Theory4. Chapter 3: Critical Theory and Mediated Non-Identity5. Chapter 4: Critical Theory and Political Theory6. Chapter 5: New Paths Beyond the Marx-Freud Synthesis 7. Conclusion: The Mediations of SocietyBiblioIndex

Schecter offers not so much an update as a return to the spirit of critical theory--not least its stress on the need for an interdisciplinary and politically engaged approach to the study of contemporary society that is alive to the interconnections between culture, politics, law and economics in maintaining and transforming a given social formation. The result is a powerful manifesto for a new school of critical thought, able to address the challenges posed by globalisation, identity politics and the decline in support for conventional democracy.