N Harris
Biographic Data
| ID | 15788 |
|---|---|
| NAME | N Harris |
| GIVEN NAMES | N |
| FAMILY NAME | Harris |
| SIGNATURE | HARRIS N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Oxford Brookes University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7336-1902 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 73 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Critical Theory and Climate Change: Why is the Frankfurt School so Silent?
Frankfurt School critical theorists have said remarkably little about climate change. This is curious, because the project of a critical theory of society, as outlined by Horkheimer, would seem intuitively useful for exploring society’s collective failure to address global warming. As per Horkheimer’s famous essay, “Traditional and Critical Theory”, a critical theory of society sought to disclose how unsustainable and contradictory social structu…
Eight arguments against Axel Honneth’s critical theory of recognition
Honneth’s critical theory of recognition divides social and political theorists. Advocates of Honneth’s approach stress its sophisticated normative foundations, its ease of operationalizability and its intuitive applicability to contemporary socio-political struggles. Honneth’s approach is popular with empirical researchers and is deployed widely. Yet, criticisms of Honneth’s theory have been mounting. In this paper, I expand on these criticisms.…
Cracks in left strategy: Interstitial revolution in E. O. Wright and John Holloway
Over the past two decades, anti-capitalist social and political theorists have increasingly embraced the transformative potential of solidaristic organisations that exist within the ‘cracks’ (the ‘interstices’) of the capitalist system. The argument goes that by growing and expanding progressive organisations within capitalism’s ‘cracks’, activists can peacefully usher in a post-capitalist future. Such an approach is referred to as an interstitia…
Max Weber
This chapter starts with a brief intellectual biography of Weber, introducing his significance for the development of interpretivist sociology. The discussion then moves on to introduce five key concepts which are developed throughout his work: Verstehen , ideal types, ideal types of authority and social action, the ‘Iron Cage’, and disenchantment and the Protestant Work Ethic. The chapter then focuses on how these concepts shaped the development…
The Early Frankfurt School
This chapter starts by introducing the historical period in which the Institute for Social Research was founded. The School’s intellectual debts are acknowledged: to Freud, Marx, Weber, and Lukács. The discussion then moves on to explore the key concepts associated with the early Frankfurt School: the difference between ‘Traditional’ and ‘Critical’ Theory, reification, instrumental rationality, the Culture Industry, and Freudo-Marxism. Having out…
Karl Marx
This chapter starts by differentiating between Marxism as a sociological perspective and the purportedly ‘Marxist’ states and groups in the twentieth century. A brief biography of Marx follows before his key concepts are introduced. The discussion focuses on: alienation, class, mode of production, commodity fetishism, and historical materialism. The discussion then shifts to addressing how Marx’s work shaped social theory. Two points are discusse…
The Frankfurt School Today
This chapter starts by locating the intersubjective turn in Frankfurt School scholarship as a response to the ‘dead-end’ of Critical Theory in the 1960s. The post-metaphysical and post-Marxian turns in later Frankfurt School scholarship are outlined, as is the primacy of intersubjectivity to second- and third-generation Critical Theory. Five key concepts for Habermas and Honneth are then presented: modernity and social learning processes, post-Ma…
Decolonial Social Theory
This final substantive chapter introduces decolonial theory. The introduction to the chapter explains why this area of study remains relevant today in a world of purportedly ‘free’ sovereign nation-states. The difference between decolonial and postcolonial thought is then briefly outlined. The chapter then moves on to outline related key concepts: the coloniality of power, eurocentrism, epistemicide, subalternity, and modernity/coloniality. The f…
Pierre Bourdieu
This chapter starts with a brief vignette illustrating how we read class from people’s appearances. Bourdieu’s biography is then sketched, outlining how his own life influenced his scholarship. The chapter then discusses five of his key concepts: capital, habitus, field, homology and structural correspondence, and symbolic violence. The focus then shifts to exploring how Bourdieu’s concepts shaped subsequent social theory and social research. A d…
Conclusion
This brief conclusion offers a series of questions for reflection drawing upon cross-cutting themes throughout the book.
Émile Durkheim
This chapter starts with a brief intellectual biography of Durkheim, introducing his significance for the development of both positivism and functionalism. The discussion then moves to introduce five key concepts which are developed throughout his work: anomie, collective consciousness, organic and mechanical solidarity, the division of labour, and social facts. The chapter then moves on to discuss the problems of turning to Durkheim’s concepts t…
Gender
This chapter begins by stressing the relative novelty of discussing gender as a key concern with mainstream social theory. The broader heritage of the feminist movement is outlined and contemporary gender theory is located within it. Five key concepts within gender theory are then outlined: patriarchy, sex and gender, queer theory, care labour and feminist political economy, and intersectionality. The focus then shifts to discuss how these concep…
Post-structuralism and Post-modernism
This chapter begins by introducing the French intellectual landscape of the 1950s and 1960s. The key tenets of structuralism are introduced and Levi Strauss’s anthropology is outlined. The focus then shifts to stressing the differences and similarities between post-modernism and post-structuralism. The next section of the chapter introduces five concepts related to these traditions: postmodernism (as an idea), deconstructionism, discourse and pow…
Capital is Dead. Long Live Capital! A Political Marxist Analysis of Digital Capitalism and Infrastructure
There is a growing literature suggesting that the digital economy is taking us out of capitalism. While this manifests most notably as a diagnosis of ‘digital feudalism’ or ‘techno-feudalism’, a differing voice is McKenzie Wark, who suggests we have entered an entirely new mode of production altogether: ‘vectoralism’. This paper historicises and theorises our current conjuncture in relation to the potential multiplicity of modes of production, an…
Worker Cooperatives for a Democratic Economy: A Conversation with Critical Theory
Our article sheds light on two enduring debates within the cooperative literature: the degeneration thesis and the spillover thesis. While the degeneration thesis suggests cooperatives are doomed to failure, the spillover thesis suggests otherwise, contending that the experience of democratic control furthers social change beyond the cooperative itself. By turning to critical theory, we are able to bring new insights into these conversations. The…
Foundations of Social Theory: A Critical Introduction
Foundations of Social Theory: A Critical Introduction accessibly introduces students to classical and contemporary social theory, exploring the foundational theories which shape the discipline while also engaging critically with their contribution and presenting the more progressive and contemporary theorists in dialogue with canonical figures. Social theory is introduced as the construction and connection of concepts which make social inquiry po…
Reflections on ecological social theory marking 50 years of E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful
While not primarily a social theorist in the classical sense, E. F. Schumacher’s interdisciplinary thought helped galvanise ecological social theory and the ecological movement more broadly. In this article, we introduce a special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory dedicated to engaging with E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful on its 50th anniversary. We provide both an overview of his life and work before locating Small is Beautifu…
Rousseau Today: Interdisciplinary Essays
Meta-economics, scale and contemporary social theory: Re-reading E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful
In this article, we argue that E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful offers important insights for contemporary social theory. In particular, we focus on the merits of his use of ‘meta-economics’ and of ‘scale’ as a means for advancing ecological social critique. While we are sympathetic to Schumacher’s approach, we are mindful of the limitations to his theoretical imagination and commence our article acknowledging his partisan metaphysics and hi…
What is capitalism? Toward a working definition
Since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, capitalism has returned as a major concept within the social sciences. While this has led to important interventions, there is yet to be a widely accepted definition of the concept. Such a definition matters, both for assessing the merits of recent scholarship but also because attempts at thinking 'beyond capitalism' require an understanding of what one is trying to overcome. For it to be of use, we need a de…
André Gorz and contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory: Alienation, eco-socialism and post-productivism
We argue that Gorz's work offers a nuanced engagement with alienation that is instructive for contemporary social theory. In keeping with Gorz's broader politics, we contend that the utility of his framing of alienation derives from his insistence that progressive critique must challenge the ideal of productivism. We start the paper by presenting a sympathetic reconstruction of Gorz's understanding of alienation. Next, we explicitly detail the st…
Critical Theory and Universal Basic Income
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified interest in alternatives to neoliberalism. One proposal that has been increasingly discussed by both academics and activists is the implementation of a Universal Basic Income (UBI). This would typically see all citizens awarded a regular cash payment, without conditionality attached. While UBI thus deserves considerable attention from sociologists, as yet critical theorists have not offered an extended engage…
Capitalism and its Critics: Capitalism in Social and Political Theory
"Capitalism and its Critics offers an accessible account of major theories of capitalism from the industrial revolution to the present day. The book provides a comprehensive account of the economic and social thought of key theorists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to David Harvey and Thomas Piketty. Capitalism has long been the subject of passionate debate, and today such contestations are perhaps more timely than ever. For its advocates, capitali…
Thinking Beyond Neoliberalism: Alternative Societies, Transition, and Resistance
Critical theory and social pathology: The Frankfurt School Beyond Recognition
Critical theory once offered a powerful, distinctive approach to social research, enabling sociologists to diagnose the irrationalities of the social world across institutions and forms of thought, even within the subject’s deepest desires. Yet, with the work of Axel Honneth, such analytical potency has been lost. The ‘domestication’ of critical theory stems from the programme’s embrace of Honneth’s ‘recognition-cognitivist’ understanding of soci…
Foundations of Social Theory: A Critical Introduction
Foundations of Social Theory: A Critical Introduction accessibly introduces students to classical and contemporary social theory, exploring the foundational theories which shape the discipline while also engaging critically with their contribution and presenting the more progressive and contemporary theorists in dialogue with canonical figures. Social theory is introduced as the construction and connection of concepts which make social inquiry po…
Critical theory and the question of technology: The Frankfurt School revisited
Unlike the first generation of critical theorists, contemporary critical theory has largely ignored technology. This is to the detriment of a critical theory of society - technology is now a central feature of our daily lives and integral to the contemporary form of capitalism. Rather than seek to rescue the first generation's substantive theory of technology, which has been partly outmoded by historical developments, the approach adopted in this…
Does Responsive Regulation Offer an Alternative? Questioning the Role of Formalistic Assessment in Child Protection Investigations
The interface between parents and child protection agencies has long been a cause of concern. This paper examines the challenge that the child protection system faces from the perspective of responsive regulation theory (Braithwaite, 2002). The analysis suggests that management of compliance, though rarely discussed in the literature, has a significant impact on investigations. An emphasis on assessment, especially formal risk assessment, places …
Recovering the critical potential of social pathology diagnosis
While the framework of social pathology remains a crucial tool for critical social theorists, there is confusion and debate surrounding the precise nature of the heuristic. The core argument of this article is that while the diagnosis of social pathology harbours radical potential as a critical device, recent developments have led to the ascendancy of a restrictive, recognition-cognitive understanding. I argue that this has displaced alternate, m…
Pathologies of recognition: An introduction
For generations, critical social theorists have turned to the framing of 'pathology' to provide a theoretical infrastructure for their critique. Such an approach famously undergirds much of the Frankfurt School's canonical work. Axel Honneth, current chair of the Institute of Social Research, continues this tradition. While Frankfurt School approaches have largely tied pathology diagnosis to a critique of historically mediated reason, a plurality…
Worker Cooperatives for a Democratic Economy: A Conversation with Critical Theory
Our article sheds light on two enduring debates within the cooperative literature: the degeneration thesis and the spillover thesis. While the degeneration thesis suggests cooperatives are doomed to failure, the spillover thesis suggests otherwise, contending that the experience of democratic control furthers social change beyond the cooperative itself. By turning to critical theory, we are able to bring new insights into these conversations. The…
Reflections on ecological social theory marking 50 years of E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful
While not primarily a social theorist in the classical sense, E. F. Schumacher’s interdisciplinary thought helped galvanise ecological social theory and the ecological movement more broadly. In this article, we introduce a special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory dedicated to engaging with E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful on its 50th anniversary. We provide both an overview of his life and work before locating Small is Beautifu…
From sociology to social theory: Critical cosmopolitanism, modernity, and post-universalism
This article focuses on the critical cosmopolitan aim of transcending sociology's provincial outlook, which mistakenly universalizes Western societies' historical experiences and normative aspirations. The authors argue that a change in perspective, from sociology to social theory, is crucial in this regard. While a sociological inflection carries a primary investment in the analysis of changes cosmopolitanism brings to the social world, social t…
What is capitalism? Toward a working definition
Since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, capitalism has returned as a major concept within the social sciences. While this has led to important interventions, there is yet to be a widely accepted definition of the concept. Such a definition matters, both for assessing the merits of recent scholarship but also because attempts at thinking 'beyond capitalism' require an understanding of what one is trying to overcome. For it to be of use, we need a de…
André Gorz and contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory: Alienation, eco-socialism and post-productivism
We argue that Gorz's work offers a nuanced engagement with alienation that is instructive for contemporary social theory. In keeping with Gorz's broader politics, we contend that the utility of his framing of alienation derives from his insistence that progressive critique must challenge the ideal of productivism. We start the paper by presenting a sympathetic reconstruction of Gorz's understanding of alienation. Next, we explicitly detail the st…
Reconstructing Erich Fromm's 'pathology of normalcy: Transcending the recognition-cognitive paradigm in the diagnosis of social pathologies
Erich Fromm's analysis of 'pathological normalcy' offers promising social-theoretical resources to help transcend the contemporary, 'domesticated', diagnosis of social pathologies. This article commences by briefly tracing the numerous limitations of the current orthodoxy, epitomised by the recognition-cognitive 'pathologies of recognition' approach. A sympathetic reconstruction of Erich Fromm's diagnosis of pathological normalcy is then presente…
Accountability and Choice in Schooling
Feasibility study on Gait monitoring and assessment using smart mobile phones
The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 5.120 (2020 JCR, received in June 2021)The IJIC 20th Anniversary Issue was published in 2021
Does Responsive Regulation Offer an Alternative? Questioning the Role of Formalistic Assessment in Child Protection Investigations
The interface between parents and child protection agencies has long been a cause of concern. This paper examines the challenge that the child protection system faces from the perspective of responsive regulation theory (Braithwaite, 2002). The analysis suggests that management of compliance, though rarely discussed in the literature, has a significant impact on investigations. An emphasis on assessment, especially formal risk assessment, places …
Recovering the critical potential of social pathology diagnosis
While the framework of social pathology remains a crucial tool for critical social theorists, there is confusion and debate surrounding the precise nature of the heuristic. The core argument of this article is that while the diagnosis of social pathology harbours radical potential as a critical device, recent developments have led to the ascendancy of a restrictive, recognition-cognitive understanding. I argue that this has displaced alternate, m…
Reconstructing Erich Fromm's 'pathology of normalcy: Transcending the recognition-cognitive paradigm in the diagnosis of social pathologies
Erich Fromm's analysis of 'pathological normalcy' offers promising social-theoretical resources to help transcend the contemporary, 'domesticated', diagnosis of social pathologies. This article commences by briefly tracing the numerous limitations of the current orthodoxy, epitomised by the recognition-cognitive 'pathologies of recognition' approach. A sympathetic reconstruction of Erich Fromm's diagnosis of pathological normalcy is then presente…
Pathologies of recognition: An introduction
For generations, critical social theorists have turned to the framing of 'pathology' to provide a theoretical infrastructure for their critique. Such an approach famously undergirds much of the Frankfurt School's canonical work. Axel Honneth, current chair of the Institute of Social Research, continues this tradition. While Frankfurt School approaches have largely tied pathology diagnosis to a critique of historically mediated reason, a plurality…
From sociology to social theory: Critical cosmopolitanism, modernity, and post-universalism
This article focuses on the critical cosmopolitan aim of transcending sociology's provincial outlook, which mistakenly universalizes Western societies' historical experiences and normative aspirations. The authors argue that a change in perspective, from sociology to social theory, is crucial in this regard. While a sociological inflection carries a primary investment in the analysis of changes cosmopolitanism brings to the social world, social t…
Critical theory and the question of technology: The Frankfurt School revisited
Unlike the first generation of critical theorists, contemporary critical theory has largely ignored technology. This is to the detriment of a critical theory of society - technology is now a central feature of our daily lives and integral to the contemporary form of capitalism. Rather than seek to rescue the first generation's substantive theory of technology, which has been partly outmoded by historical developments, the approach adopted in this…
Capitalism and its Critics: Capitalism in Social and Political Theory
"Capitalism and its Critics offers an accessible account of major theories of capitalism from the industrial revolution to the present day. The book provides a comprehensive account of the economic and social thought of key theorists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to David Harvey and Thomas Piketty. Capitalism has long been the subject of passionate debate, and today such contestations are perhaps more timely than ever. For its advocates, capitali…
Thinking Beyond Neoliberalism: Alternative Societies, Transition, and Resistance
Critical theory and social pathology: The Frankfurt School Beyond Recognition
Critical theory once offered a powerful, distinctive approach to social research, enabling sociologists to diagnose the irrationalities of the social world across institutions and forms of thought, even within the subject’s deepest desires. Yet, with the work of Axel Honneth, such analytical potency has been lost. The ‘domestication’ of critical theory stems from the programme’s embrace of Honneth’s ‘recognition-cognitivist’ understanding of soci…
Efectos de una formación en inclusión sobre la autoeficacia del profesorado de Educación Física (Effects of an inclusive Physical Education workshop on teachers' self- efficacy)
La competencia percibida por el profesorado de Educacin Fsica parece ser fundamental a la hora de incluir con xito a estudiantes con discapacidad en sus aulas. No obstante, gran parte de los docentes manifiestan no tener la formacin suficiente para llevar a cabo el proceso de inclusin educativa. As, el presente estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar el efecto de un programa de formacin continua en Educacin Fsica inclusiva, basado en el programa Depo…
The Specter of Babel: A Reconstruction of Political Judgement
Rousseau Today: Interdisciplinary Essays
Meta-economics, scale and contemporary social theory: Re-reading E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful
In this article, we argue that E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful offers important insights for contemporary social theory. In particular, we focus on the merits of his use of ‘meta-economics’ and of ‘scale’ as a means for advancing ecological social critique. While we are sympathetic to Schumacher’s approach, we are mindful of the limitations to his theoretical imagination and commence our article acknowledging his partisan metaphysics and hi…
What is capitalism? Toward a working definition
Since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, capitalism has returned as a major concept within the social sciences. While this has led to important interventions, there is yet to be a widely accepted definition of the concept. Such a definition matters, both for assessing the merits of recent scholarship but also because attempts at thinking 'beyond capitalism' require an understanding of what one is trying to overcome. For it to be of use, we need a de…
André Gorz and contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory: Alienation, eco-socialism and post-productivism
We argue that Gorz's work offers a nuanced engagement with alienation that is instructive for contemporary social theory. In keeping with Gorz's broader politics, we contend that the utility of his framing of alienation derives from his insistence that progressive critique must challenge the ideal of productivism. We start the paper by presenting a sympathetic reconstruction of Gorz's understanding of alienation. Next, we explicitly detail the st…
Critical Theory and Universal Basic Income
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified interest in alternatives to neoliberalism. One proposal that has been increasingly discussed by both academics and activists is the implementation of a Universal Basic Income (UBI). This would typically see all citizens awarded a regular cash payment, without conditionality attached. While UBI thus deserves considerable attention from sociologists, as yet critical theorists have not offered an extended engage…
Max Weber
This chapter starts with a brief intellectual biography of Weber, introducing his significance for the development of interpretivist sociology. The discussion then moves on to introduce five key concepts which are developed throughout his work: Verstehen , ideal types, ideal types of authority and social action, the ‘Iron Cage’, and disenchantment and the Protestant Work Ethic. The chapter then focuses on how these concepts shaped the development…
The Early Frankfurt School
This chapter starts by introducing the historical period in which the Institute for Social Research was founded. The School’s intellectual debts are acknowledged: to Freud, Marx, Weber, and Lukács. The discussion then moves on to explore the key concepts associated with the early Frankfurt School: the difference between ‘Traditional’ and ‘Critical’ Theory, reification, instrumental rationality, the Culture Industry, and Freudo-Marxism. Having out…
Karl Marx
This chapter starts by differentiating between Marxism as a sociological perspective and the purportedly ‘Marxist’ states and groups in the twentieth century. A brief biography of Marx follows before his key concepts are introduced. The discussion focuses on: alienation, class, mode of production, commodity fetishism, and historical materialism. The discussion then shifts to addressing how Marx’s work shaped social theory. Two points are discusse…
The Frankfurt School Today
This chapter starts by locating the intersubjective turn in Frankfurt School scholarship as a response to the ‘dead-end’ of Critical Theory in the 1960s. The post-metaphysical and post-Marxian turns in later Frankfurt School scholarship are outlined, as is the primacy of intersubjectivity to second- and third-generation Critical Theory. Five key concepts for Habermas and Honneth are then presented: modernity and social learning processes, post-Ma…
Decolonial Social Theory
This final substantive chapter introduces decolonial theory. The introduction to the chapter explains why this area of study remains relevant today in a world of purportedly ‘free’ sovereign nation-states. The difference between decolonial and postcolonial thought is then briefly outlined. The chapter then moves on to outline related key concepts: the coloniality of power, eurocentrism, epistemicide, subalternity, and modernity/coloniality. The f…
Pierre Bourdieu
This chapter starts with a brief vignette illustrating how we read class from people’s appearances. Bourdieu’s biography is then sketched, outlining how his own life influenced his scholarship. The chapter then discusses five of his key concepts: capital, habitus, field, homology and structural correspondence, and symbolic violence. The focus then shifts to exploring how Bourdieu’s concepts shaped subsequent social theory and social research. A d…
Conclusion
This brief conclusion offers a series of questions for reflection drawing upon cross-cutting themes throughout the book.
Sociology (22 works) · Political science (19 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Critical Theory and Philosophy (14 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (10 works) · Critical theory (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Law (8 works)