In this magisterial work, Douglas Kellner brings new light to bear upon the development and contemporary implications of critical theory.The origins of critical theory, he argues, were connected to the transition from classical to state-organized capitalism. While some of the perspectives of critical theory are vital to social analysis today, in other basic respects the approach of critical theory must be updated to be able to confront the changes which have intervened in Western society over the past quarter of a century. The dialectical revision of Marxian theory carried out by the Frankfurt authors must now be applied to their own works to generate a critical interpretation of today's social world. This, Kellner argues, requires a reassessment of the previous critical theory analysis of contemporary capitalism through new perspectives which take account of developments in consumer, media, technological, cultural and other spheres of what Kellner calls 'techno-capitalism'. This revision and updating of critical theory constitutes a positive intervention in the debates over postmodernism.
This book will be of great interest to students and professionals in sociology, politics, cultural studies and philosophy.
- ISBN10 0745604404
- ISBN13 9780745604404
- Publish Date 14 September 1989 (first published 1 September 1989)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 October 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Polity Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 280
- Language English