Reconsidering Habermas's Colonization Thesis

A Critical Theory of Neoliberalism
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-0-367-47095-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 513 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought

This book reconsiders Habermas’s critique of capitalism as a foundation for a critical theory of neoliberalism. Taking criticisms into account, the author refines and redevelops Habermas’s system-lifeworld paradigm in three parts, focusing on system, lifeworld, and communication. The exposition unfolds through a new synthesis and convergence, from within Habermas’s frame, of Axel Honneth, Niklas Luhmann, Talcott Parsons, and Karl Marx. This synthesis is interwoven with an account of the neoliberal turn, such that social theory is historically contextualized and neoliberalism theoretically explained at one and the same time. The end result is a reconstruction of the colonization thesis in a new theory of relinguistification, advancing a communicative, dialectical, and reflexive theory of reification.

Reconsidering Habermas’s Colonization Thesis will appeal to scholars of critical theory, social theory, sociology, and cultural studies, as well as readers interested in neoliberalism and the critique of capitalism.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Condon, Roderick

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Part I: System

1. Habermas and Honneth: Theorizing the Economy

2. Reconsidering Habermas's Media Theory: Linguistic and Delinguistified Communication

3. System-Lifeworld Refined and Redeveloped: A Critical Theory of the Capitalist Economy

Part II: Lifeworld

4. The Colonization Thesis Expanded: Capitalism and Democracy as Evolutionary Processes

5. Modern Culture and Political Ideologies

Part III: Communication

6. From Colonization to Relinguistification: Reconsidering Habermas's Colonization Thesis

7. Colonization as Relinguistification: A Critical Theory of Neoliberalism

Über Autor(innen)

Roderick Condon is a teaching fellow in the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.