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141
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58The Crisis Paradigm: Description and prescription in social and political theoryPalgrave Macmillan. 2019.This book examines how 20th century theorists have used a discourse of “crisis” to frame their conceptualizations of modernity. Through an investigation of four key thinkers (Georg Lukács, Hannah Arendt, Reinhart Koselleck and Jürgen Habermas), Gilbert argues that scholars in the social sciences and humanities should be cautious of treating crises as explananda for research. Instead, the book calls for sociological analysis of the role of “crisis” within social scientific discourse, and examines…Read more
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52The culture crunch Daniel Bell's The Cultural Contradictions of CapitalismThesis Eleven 118 (1): 83-95. 2013.Daniel Bell’s The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism lies at the intersection of the three main theoretical currents of sociological thought, those of Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim and Max Weber. His ‘three realms’ methodology moves away from deterministic accounts that subordinate the political and cultural to the economic realm. By granting each realm an autonomy and principles of their own, Bell locates the contradictions of capitalism in the friction between them. With constant innovation, in…Read more
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37Conceptual histories and critical theoriesThesis Eleven 132 87-101. 2016.Recent scholarship has drawn on Koselleck’s methods of conceptual history and his diagnosis of ‘crisis’ in modernity to make sense of 21st-century developments in political, social and economic life and thought. This review essay looks at two texts that, in different ways, test Koselleck’s ideas in challenging and innovative ways. Lara’s use of conceptual history to shed light on the debates over secularization demonstrates how concepts become central to struggles over the definition of politics…Read more
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25Algorithmic culture and the colonization of life-worldsThesis Eleven 146 (1): 87-96. 2018.This article explores some of the concerns which are being raised about algorithms with recourse to Habermas’s theory of communicative action. The intention is not to undertake an empirical examination of ‘algorithms’ or their consequences but to connect critical theory to some contemporary concerns regarding digital cultures. Habermas’s ‘colonization of life-worlds’ thesis gives theoretical expression to two different trends which underlie many current criticisms of the insidious influence of d…Read more
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10The Masses are the Ruling Classes: Policy Romanticism, Democratic Populism, and Social Welfare in America: by William Epstein, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 280 pp. £29.99The European Legacy 25 (7-8): 866-868. 2020.Volume 25, Issue 7-8, November - December 2020, Page 866-868.
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6Book reviews: Disasters, Risks and Revelation: Making Sense of Our Times (review)Thesis Eleven 158 (1): 141-148. 2020.
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5Book Review: Fictions of Sustainability: The Politics of Growth and Post-capitalist Futures (review)Thesis Eleven 166 (1): 181-184. 2021.
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3Book reviews: Disasters, Risks and Revelation: Making Sense of Our Times (review)Thesis Eleven 158 (1): 141-148. 2020.
Areas of Specialization
Sociology |
Areas of Interest
Sociology |
Trust |
Theories of Emotion, Misc |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |