On Critique

On Critique

EnglishPaperback / softback
Boltanski Luc
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
EAN: 9780745649641
On order
Delivery on Tuesday, 12. of November 2024
€20.27
Common price €22.53
Discount 10%
pc
Do you want this product today?
Oxford Bookshop Banská Bystrica
not available
Oxford Bookshop Bratislava
not available
Oxford Bookshop Košice
not available

Detailed information

The relationship between sociology and social critique has haunted the discipline since its origins. Does critique divert sociology from its scientific project? Or is critique the ultimate goal of sociology, without which the latter would be a futile activity disconnected from the concerns of ordinary people? This issue has underpinned two divergent theoretical orientations that can be found in the discipline today: the critical sociology that was developed in its most elaborate form by Pierre Bourdieu, and the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Luc Boltanski and his associates.

In critical sociology, description in terms of power relations underscores the potency of mechanisms of oppression, the way the oppressed passively endure them, going so far in their alienation as to
adopt the values that enslave them. Pragmatic sociology, by contrast, describes the actions of human beings who rebel but who are endowed with reason. It stresses their ability, in certain historical conditions, to rise up against their domination and construct new interpretations of reality in the service of critical activity.

In this major new book Boltanski develops a framework that makes it possible to reconcile these seemingly antagonistic approaches - the one determinist and assigning the leading role to the enlightening science of the sociologist, the other concerned to stick as closely as possible to what people say and do. This labour of unification leads him to rework central notions such as practice, institution, critique and, finally, ‘social reality,' all with the aim of contributing to a contemporary renewal of practices of emancipation.

EAN 9780745649641
ISBN 0745649645
Binding Paperback / softback
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Publication date March 18, 2011
Pages 200
Language English
Dimensions 229 x 152 x 23
Country United Kingdom
Readership Professional & Scholarly
Authors Boltanski Luc