Circle 6: What is critical about critical theory? Bridging the gap between social science and philosophy
Pic: Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Big Fish Eat Little Fish, 1556.
(See upcoming events below the Study Circle description)
This Study Circle explores key issues at the intersection of the humanities and the social sciences. It builds on the idea and tradition of critical theory in a broad sense but reaching back to its German and French roots in the 1920s and 1930s and beyond. Secondly, it also builds on existing Nordic contributions and platforms within this broad tradition, while creating new ones. Finally, it builds on existing social research that agrees with the goal of developing a fundamental critique of all existing conditions to ‘liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’, as Horkheimer (1982) famously put it when distinguishing between conventional and critical theory.
The hallmark of critical theory is the dual challenge of accounting for constitutive relations of power while illuminating the conditions and struggles that can lead to emancipation. In the context of this workshop, this challenge translates into bridging the boundary between social science and philosophy, empirically, conceptually and practically. The circle asks how this boundary should be crossed, from the perspective of critical theory. The second question concerns the division between theory and practice: What is the relationship between critical theory and emancipatory practice, and how can this relationship be facilitated as complementary? These questions lead to an examination of how this boundary between social science and philosophy might be crossed.
The research programme of the Circle is based on these questions, which will be put into practice through the following collaborative efforts:
- by discussing current critical theory in relation to other critical approaches in today’s conceptual landscape (feminism, critical race theory, postcolonial studies, eco-Marxism, queer theory);
- by discussing current critical theory in relation to empirical social research on relevant conditions, processes, actors, and circumstances; and
- by connecting these two efforts with the overall aim of strengthening existing collaborations and advancing critical theory methodologically and conceptually in the Nordic countries.
The work will be organised around several workshops during 2025–2027, each of which will focus on a strategic theme that is either primarily conceptual (involving other critical approaches), or primarily empirical (involving existing social science), or specifically addressing the gap between philosophy and the social sciences.
The Study Circle provides a unique opportunity for Nordic-level meetings and collaboration between practitioners of critical theory, researchers, scholarly societies, and publishers, and for addressing the issues raised by the Circle. We hope to strengthen existing links between individuals and institutions in the Nordic countries and to expand this platform to facilitate seminars, courses, and other forms of academic exchange in the tradition of critical theory, both within and beyond the individual countries. In addition to the networking of individual researchers andacademic circles, the Circle seeks to involve people from NGOs and wider civil society in its meetings.
Upcoming Events (2025):
Winter Session: Critical theory & social practice in the Nordics: is there a Nordic critical theory?
Workshop in Critical Theory and Theorisation, February 13-15th 2025, organized by the Stockholm university and the Nordic Summer University
In the 1843 letter to Ruge, Marx wrote that the objective of critical theory was “the self-clarification of the struggles and wishes of the age”, highlighting its intimate connection to social and political struggles of emancipation. But the relationship between critical theory and existing struggles has been problematic. More recent approaches have sought to address people involved in existential and political struggles as partners on equal footing to reach adequate interpretations of social reality and realize transformative potentials. This workshop invites junior as well as senior scholars to reflect on the relationship between theory and lived experiences, oppositional forms of consciousness, and regional practices of critique and resistance. As often pointed out, the Nordic countries have some features in common – such as a strong well-fare state and a history of strong worker’s and Feminist movements, as well as the ideal of collective agreements to regulate the relation between workers and employers – and that has shaped the organization of contemporary emancipatory practices, while the development of critical theory has been internationally oriented. Nordic theorists have turned to certain language traditions for concepts and inspiration; German for Frankfurt-school inspired critical theory, French for Foucault-inspired theory as well as much feminist philosophy of the 1970s and not the least English for contemporary critical theory. Against this background, the workshop will discuss the nature of critical theory being developed in the Nordics, and its the relations to struggles, past or present.
The workshop invites scholars at all stages of their careers and other professionals working in/with critical theory who wish to contribute to exploring the idea of a Nordic critical theory, either as it has been developed during the 20th century or as it is being developed now. We invite contributions on a broad range of topics around the theme of a Nordic critical theory:
- What did the reception look like in the Nordics of various schools of critical theory?
- What theory is being developed today? Around which specific themes and in relation to what experiences of emancipatory practices?
- How could a reconstructed Nordic tradition of critical theory contribute to developing new social analysis? Does such a tradition have specific traits; concerning ideas of emancipation and ideas of oppression?
- What in this tradition (if there is one) is underdeveloped? How can it be further developed to fit the present situation?
Confirmed keynotes: Bernard Harcourt, Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and Thomas Wallgren, Professor of Philosophy, University of Helsinki.
The workshop takes place between February 13-15th, 2025 at Stockholm university, Sweden. It is a collaboration between Stockholm university and Nordic summer university. Abstracts (300 words) can be sent to karolina.kallgren@idehist.su.se. Deadline is December 15, 2024. There will be a smaller fee to attend the conference and conference dinner.
Summer Session: Climate change
20–28th July 2025, Finland
More information on the summer session will be available before 15th January, 2025.
