Through engagement with the core problems of social theory as well as recent socio-political thought, this book explores landmark instances of 21st century social contestation, in order to demonstrate the importance of critical social theory to explaining and understanding contemporary social conflict and social transformation.
Social Theory and the Political Imaginary: Practice, Critique and History is an innovative work of synthesis, critique, and analysis. It presages a social theory perspective that recognises the constitutive significance of the political imaginary in modernity. Social theorys current dilemmas are explored through a series of interlinked asssessments of some of its recent substantial strands, specifically, Luc Boltanskis pragmatism and the wider practical turn, the perspectives of multiple modernities and global modernity, the outlook of social and political imaginaries, and critical social theory. The political imaginarys reconfigurations are evident in the tensions of global modernity and original social theory interpretations are advanced of landmark instances of twenty-first century social contestation: the Hong Kong protests conditioned by threats to civil freedoms and a lack of self-determination, the radical democratic practices of anti-austerity movements contesting capitalist globalisations injustices, and the inverted cosmopolitanism of the 2005 French Riots challenging the oppression and inequalities experienced by immigrant communities and marginalised youth. These incisive applications of social theory and complementary conceptual innovations illuminate the vicissitudes of social struggles, political forms, and theoretical perspectives. Similarly, reflection on the political imaginary is found to enable a necessary rethinking of the interrelationship of practice, critique and history.
Recenzijos
'Social Theory and the Political Imaginary will encourage even force Sociologists and Social Theorists to think about modernity in new and more expansive ways. The book is an excellent example of contemporary social theory, with its conceptual insights concerning the intersection and tensions between social imaginaries, especially those of democratic polities, nation states and capitalistic forms.' Honorary Professor Jocelyn Pixley, Macquarie University
'This is an especially important book for contemporary critical theory. Its contributions unfold on multiple layers that cut across current relations of domination as well as quests for emancipation. Browne encourages us to focus on the complex dynamics, contradictions, crises, and possibilities of our political imaginaries. By engaging with the reconfiguration of political imaginaries, social theory can make a key contribution to critically understanding the historical character of the relationships that define us. Brownes book confronts us with matters that are unavoidable today and his own proposals are based on interrogations of theories sensitive to these practical concerns.' Alejandro Bialakowsky, Professor and Researcher of Sociological Theory, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Craig Browne
Chapter
1. Social Theory as a Project and as an Institution
Craig Browne
Chapter
2. The Modern Political Imaginary and the Problem of Hierarchy
Craig Browne
Chapter
3. From the Philosophy of Praxis to the Sociology of Practice
Craig Browne
Chapter
4. The Institution of Critique and the Critique of Institutions
Craig Browne
Chapter
5. The Political Forms of Modernity: The Gauchet-Badiou Debate over Democracy and Communism
Craig Browne
Chapter
6. Hong Kong as a Dual Periphery
Craig Browne with Phillip Mar (Orcid 000-0002-3268-270X)
Chapter
7. Austerity and its Antitheses: Practical Negations of Capitalist Legitimacy
Craig Browne with Simon Susen (Orcid 0000-0003-0643-1891)
Chapter
8. Enacting Half-Positions: Creative Disrespect in the 2005 French Riots
Craig Browne with Phillip Mar (Orcid 000-0002-3268-270X)
Index
Craig Browne is an associate professor at The University of Sydney. He works in the area of critical social theory. His research into intersubjectivity, creative democracy, social change, contestation, global modernity and social and political imaginaries systematically revises the philosophy of praxis. He is the author of Critical Social Theory, Sage; and Habermas and Giddens on Praxis and Modernity: A Constructive Comparison, Anthem; and co-author of Taylor and Politics: A Critical Introduction, Edinburgh University Press. He co-edited Violence in France and Australia: Disorder in the Postcolonial Welfare State, SUP, and a special issue of Social Epistemology on conceptualizing the political imaginary.
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