Introduction: Social Pathology and Social Research

This introductory chapter serves to locate the volume’s contributions within both the current historical moment and the rapidly evolving Critical Theoretical literature. The chapter is divided into three sections. First, the significance of pathology diagnosing social research is articulated. Second, three potentially existential contemporary challenges to such a research framework are elaborated. Third, each chapter is summarised and its contribution is located relative to the wider critical scholarship. Social pathology diagnosing research is presented as central to Critical Theory and held to enable a form of potent social critique commensurate to the challenges of the day.

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Notes

By this rather ungainly term, borrowed from Bourdieu, McNay (2007) means that recognition theorists risk distorting their conception of the social world in order to retain the validity of their ‘recognition’ approach. For McNay, instead of admitting the obvious reality, that a monistic recognition lens is unviable, recognition theorists alter their understanding of the social world to fit within the parameters of their heurism.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK Neal Harris

1. Neal Harris