Chapter 6 How Social Science is Impossible without Critical Theory: The Immersion of Mainstream Approaches in Time and Space

Abstract

Any endeavor to circumscribe, with a certain degree of precision, the nature of the relationship between social science and critical theory would appear to be daunting. Over the course of the past century, and especially since the end of World War II, countless efforts have been made in economics, psychology, political science, and sociology, to illuminate the myriad manifestations of modern social life, from a multiplicity of angles. It is doubtful that it would be possible to do justice to all the different variants of social science, in an assessment of their relationship to critical theory. Moreover, given the proliferation of critical theories since the 1980s, the effort to devise a “map” that would reflect the particular orientations and intricacies of each approach to critical theory also would be exacting, in its own right.¹

Citation

Dahms, H.F. (2011), "Chapter 6 How Social Science is Impossible without Critical Theory: The Immersion of Mainstream Approaches in Time and Space", Dahms, H.F. (Ed.) The Vitality Of Critical Theory (Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Vol. 28), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 249-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0278-1204(2011)0000028010