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Critical Theory: Social Research
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Critical theory would say that technology is not a thing, but an ambivalent process of development between different possibilities. It is different than "neutral" because of the role of social values in the design of technical systems. From this point of view, technology is a struggle where alternatives are debated and decided.
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The original critical social theorists were Marxists, and there is some evidence that in their choice of the phrase "critical theory of society" they were in part influenced by its sounding less politically controversial than "Marxism". Nevertheless there were other substantive reasons for this choice. First, they were explicitly linking up with the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, where the term critique meant philosophical reflection on the limits of claims made for certain kinds of knowledge and a direct connection between such critique and the emphasis on moral autonomy. In an intellectual context defined by dogmatic positivism and scientism on the one hand and dogmatic "scientific socialism" on the other, critical theory meant to rehabilitate through its philosophically critical approach an orientation toward revolutionary agency, or at least its possibility, at a time when it seemed in decline.
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A useful background article on critical theory is that of Douglas Kellner, "Critical Theory and the Crisis of Social Theory." (Link on web site and copy on Library Reserve). The web site http://www.uta.e du/huma/illuminations/ has many more articles on critical theory.
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Cultural studies and critical theory combine sociology, literary theory, film/video studies, and cultural anthropology to study cultural phenomena in industrial societies. Cultural studies researchers often concentrate on how a particular phenomenon relates to matters of ideology, race, social class, and/or gender.
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