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Social criticism analyzes social structure
Social structure

Social structure is a term frequently used in sociology and social theory ? yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised . In a general sense, the term can refer to:...
s which are seen as flawed and aims at practical solutions by specific measures, radical reform
Reform

Reform means beneficial change, or sometimes, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state.Reform is generally distinguished from revolution....
 or even revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
ary change.

The starting points of social criticism can be very different and the different forms of Socialism
Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
 (Marxism
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
, Anarchism
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
, etc.) never had a monopoly on Social Criticism. The starting point can be the experience of a minority within society generally (e.g., Homosexuals) or even the experience
Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
 of a group of people within a progressive social movement
Social movement

Social movements are a type of Group action . They are large wiktionary:informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific politics or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
 which does not live up to its progressive agenda in every respect.






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Social criticism analyzes social structure
Social structure

Social structure is a term frequently used in sociology and social theory ? yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised . In a general sense, the term can refer to:...
s which are seen as flawed and aims at practical solutions by specific measures, radical reform
Reform

Reform means beneficial change, or sometimes, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state.Reform is generally distinguished from revolution....
 or even revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
ary change.

The starting points of social criticism can be very different and the different forms of Socialism
Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
 (Marxism
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
, Anarchism
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
, etc.) never had a monopoly on Social Criticism. The starting point can be the experience of a minority within society generally (e.g., Homosexuals) or even the experience
Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
 of a group of people within a progressive social movement
Social movement

Social movements are a type of Group action . They are large wiktionary:informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific politics or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
 which does not live up to its progressive agenda in every respect. Women in the New Left
New Left

The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on labour movement activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism....
 were often dissatisfied with the sexist attitudes of their male counterparts and many of them engaged in second wave feminism, while women in the Chicano movement
Chicano Movement

The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, it is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment....
 were enraged by similar attitudes and created Chicana feminism
Chicana feminism

Chicana feminism, also called Xicanisma, is a group of social theory that analyze the historical, social, political, and economic roles of Mexican American, Chicano, and Hispanic women in the United States....
. Within (or after ) postmodernism
Postmodernism

Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives....
 a grand unifying theory no longer seems possible. This does not exclude the possibility nor the necessity of dialogue
Dialogue

A dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. It is also a literary form in which two or more parties engage in a discussion....
. Nevertheless most social critics still consider the critique of capitalism to be central.

Academic forms of social criticism

The dispute between critical rationalism
Critical rationalism

Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper. Popper wrote about critical rationalism in his works, The Open Society and its Enemies Volume 2, and Conjectures and Refutations....
 (e.g. Karl Popper
Karl Popper

Knight Bachelor Karl Raimund Popper Order of the Companions of Honour, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics....
 and the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxism critical theory, social research, and philosophy. The grouping emerged at the Institute for Social Research of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in Germany when Max Horkheimer became the Institute's director in 1930....
) exemplified the principal problem whether the research in the social sciences
Social sciences

The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, communication studies, economics, human geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology....
 should pretend to be 'neutral' or 'objective' or consciously adopt a necessarily partisan view.

Works of social criticism can belong to social philosophy
Social philosophy

Social philosophy is the philosophy study of questions about social behavior . Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of science on culture, from changes in human demography...
, political economy
Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. Political economy originated in moral philosophy....
, sociology
Sociology

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
, social psychology
Social psychology

Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. Scholars in this interdisciplinarity area are typically either psychology or sociology, though all social psychologists employ both the individual and the group as their Unit of analysis....
, psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers, which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behaviour....
 but also cultural studies
Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, Media influence, film theory, cultural anthropology, philosophy, museum studies and art history/art criticism to study culture phenomena in various societies....
 and other disciplines or reject academic forms of discourse
Discourse

Discourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion or debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
.

Social criticism in literature and music

Social criticism can also be expressed in a fictional form, e.g., in a revolutionary novel like The Iron Heel
The Iron Heel

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian," it chronicles the rise of an Oligarchy tyranny in the United States....
 by Jack London
Jack London

Jack London was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea Wolf along with many other popular books....
 or in dystopia
Dystopia

A dystopia is the vision of a society that is the opposite of utopia. A dystopian society is one in which the conditions of life are suffering, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution....
n novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
s like Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963....
's Brave New World
Brave New World

Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 in literature and published in 1932 in literature. Set in the London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society....
 (1932) or George Orwell
George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an England author. His work is marked by a profound consciousness of social injustice, an intense dislike of totalitarianism, and a passion for clarity in language....
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic utopian and dystopian fiction by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949 in literature, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime....
 (1949) or Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an United States literature, fantasy, Horror fiction, science fiction, and mystery writer.Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century....
s Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian speculative fiction novel authored by Ray Bradbury and first published in 1953.The novel presents a future American society in which the masses are Hedonism, and critical thought through reading is outlawed....
 (1953), children's books or films.

Fictional literature can have a significant social impact. "For example, the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist, whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the U.S....
 furthered the antislavery movement in the United States, and the 1885 novel Ramona
Ramona

Ramona, a novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson , is the story of a part-Scottish people and part-Native Americans in the United States orphan girl growing up and getting married in Southern California, suffering racial discrimination and hardship....
, by Helen Hunt Jackson
Helen Hunt Jackson

Helen Maria Hunt Jackson was an United States writer best known as the author of Ramona, a novel about the ill treatment of Native Americans in the United Statess in southern California....
, brought about changes in laws regarding Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
. Similarly, Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair, Jr. , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning prolific United States author who wrote over 90 books in many genres and was widely considered to be one of the best investigators advocating Socialism views....
's 1906 novel The Jungle
The Jungle

The Jungle is a 1906 in literature novel written by author and Socialism journalist Upton Sinclair. It was written about the corruption of the United States meatpacking industry during the early 20th century....
 helped create new laws related to public health and food handling, and Arthur Morrison
Arthur Morrison

Arthur George Morrison was an England author and journalist, known for his realistic novels about London's East End of London and for his Detective fiction....
's 1896 novel A Child of the Jago caused England to change its housing laws."

Musical expressions of social criticism are very frequent in punk
Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock....
 and rap music, examples being Pretty Vacant
Pretty Vacant

"Pretty Vacant" was the third single released by the punk rock band Sex Pistols. This ode to apathy was released on 1 July 1977. The song marked the band's only appearance on the British music show Top of the Pops....
 by Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols

The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. The band are widely credited with initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and creating the first generation gap within rock and roll....
 and Brenda's Got a Baby
Brenda's Got a Baby

"Brenda's Got a Baby" is the solo debut single by Tupac Shakur, and tenth track from his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now. The song, which features R&B singer Dave Hollister, is about a fictional twelve-year-old girl named Brenda who lives in a ghetto, has a baby, and is incapable of supporting it....
 by Tupac
Tupac

Tupac is a given name. Notable people with the name include:*T?pac Inca Yupanqui , tenth Sapanoso Inca of the Incan Empire...
, respectively. Heavy metal
Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified Distortion , extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall...
 bands such as Metallica
Metallica

Metallica is an American heavy metal music band that formed in 1981 in Los Angeles. Founded when drummer Lars Ulrich posted an advertisement in a local newspaper, Metallica's line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists....
 and Megadeth
Megadeth

Megadeth is an American Heavy metal music band led by founder, front man, guitarist, and songwriter Dave Mustaine. Formed in 1983 by Mustaine and bass player David Ellefson following Mustaine's departure from Metallica, the band has since released eleven studio albums, six live albums, two Extended play, thirty single , thirty-two music video...
 also use social criticism extensively, particularly in their earlier works.

Classical works

  • Étienne de La Boétie
    Étienne de La Boétie

    ?tienne de La Bo?tie was a France judge, writer, political philosopher and friend of Michel de Montaigne, author of the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude ....
    : Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (circa 1560)
  • Immanuel Kant
    Immanuel Kant

    Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German Philosophy from the Kingdom of Prussia city of K?nigsberg . He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Age of Enlightenment....
    : "On the question, what is enlightenment?" (1784)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft
    Mary Wollstonecraft

    Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century Kingdom of Great Britain writer, philosopher, and feminist. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel literature, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book....
    , A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
    A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

    A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects , written by the eighteenth-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy....
    , (1792)
  • Karl Marx
    Karl Marx

    Karl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosophy, political economy, historian, sociologist, humanism, political theorist and revolutionary credited as the founder of communism....
    , The Communist Manifesto
    The Communist Manifesto

    Manifesto of the Communist Party , often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is one of the world's most influential Politics manuscripts....
     (1848)
  • Karl Marx: Capital
    Das Kapital

    is an extensive treatise on political economy written in German language by Karl Marx and edited in part by Friedrich Engels. The book is a critical analysis of capitalism....
     (1867)
  • Mikhail Bakunin
    Mikhail Bakunin

    Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism.Born in the Russian Empire to a family of Russian people nobles, Bakunin spent his youth as a junior officer in the Russian army but resigned his commission in 1835....
    , Statism and Anarchy (1873)
  • Walter Benjamin
    Walter Benjamin

    Walter Bendix Sch?nflies Benjamin was a Germany-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also influenced by the writings of his younger contemporaries Bertolt Brecht, who developed Marxist aesthetics of dialectical materialism, and G...
    : Critique of Violence (1921)
  • Georg Lukács
    Georg Lukács

    Gy?rgy Luk?cs was a Hungary Marxist philosopher and literary critic. Most scholars consider him to be the founder of the tradition of Western Marxism....
    : History and Class Consciousness (1923)
  • Virginia Woolf
    Virginia Woolf

    Adeline Virginia Woolf was an England novelist and essayist, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literature literature figures of the twentieth century....
    : A Room of One's Own
    A Room of One's Own

    A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published during 24 October 1929, it was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College, Cambridge and Girton College, two women's colleges at University of Cambridge in 1928....
     (1929)
  • Sigmund Freud
    Sigmund Freud

    Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalysis of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of Psychological repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through dialogue...
    : Civilization and Its Discontents
    Civilization and Its Discontents

    Civilization and Its Discontentsis a book by Sigmund Freud. Written in 1929, and first published in German language in 1930 as Das Unbehagen in der Kultur , it is one of Freud's most important and widely read works ....
     (1930)
  • A. J. Cronin
    A. J. Cronin

    Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scotland novelist, dramatist and writer of non-fiction who was one of the most renowned storytellers of the twentieth century....
    : The Stars Look Down
    The Stars Look Down

    The Stars Look Down is a 1935 in literature novel by A. J. Cronin which chronicles various injustices in an England coal mining community. A The Stars Look Down was produced in 1939, and television adaptations include both E le stelle stanno a guardare and The Stars Look Down versions....
     (1935)
  • A. J. Cronin
    A. J. Cronin

    Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scotland novelist, dramatist and writer of non-fiction who was one of the most renowned storytellers of the twentieth century....
    : The Citadel
    The Citadel (novel)

    The Citadel is a novel by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937, which was groundbreaking with its treatment of the contentious theme of medical ethics....
     (1937)
  • Henry Miller
    Henry Miller

    Henry Valentine Miller was an United States novelist and Painting. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of...
    : The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945)
  • Max Horkheimer
    Max Horkheimer

    Max Horkheimer was a Germany philosopher and sociologist, and a founding member of the Frankfurt School)....
    /Theodor W. Adorno
    Theodor W. Adorno

    Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno was a Germany-born international sociology, philosophy, musicology, and composer. He was a member of the Frankfurt School along with Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, J?rgen Habermas, and others....
    : Dialectic of Enlightenment
    Dialectic of Enlightenment

    Dialectic of Enlightenment , is the core text of Critical theory explaining the socio-psychological status quo that had been responsible for, what the Frankfurt School considered, the failure of the Age of Enlightenment....
     (1947)
  • Simone de Beauvoir
    Simone de Beauvoir

    Simone de Beauvoir was a France author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography in several volumes....
    : The Second Sex
    The Second Sex

    The Second Sex is one of the best known works of the France Existentialism Simone de Beauvoir. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and often regarded as a major work of feminist literature....
     (1949)
  • Aimé Césaire
    Aimé Césaire

    Aim? Fernand David C?saire was an Black peopleMartinique francophone poet, author and politician....
    , Discourse on colonialism (1950)
  • Frantz Fanon
    Frantz Fanon

    Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist, philosophy, revolutionary, and author from Martinique. He was influential in the field of post-colonial studies and was perhaps the pre-eminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization....
    : The Wretched of the Earth
    The Wretched of the Earth

    The Wretched of the Earth is Frantz Fanon's most famous work, written during and regarding the Algerian struggle for independence from Colonialism rule....
     (1961)
  • Jane Jacobs
    Jane Jacobs

    Jane Jacobs, Order of Canada, Order of Ontario was an United States-born Canadian urbanist, writer and activist. She is best known for ?The Death and Life of Great American Cities? , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States....
    : The Death and Life of Great American Cities
    The Death and Life of Great American Cities

    The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is arguably the most influential book written on urban planning in the 20th century....
     (1961)
  • Rachel Carson
    Rachel Carson

    Rachel Louise Carson was an American Marine biology and nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
    : Silent Spring
    Silent Spring

    Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
     (1962)
  • Herbert Marcuse
    Herbert Marcuse

    Herbert Marcuse was a German people philosophy and sociology, and a member of the Frankfurt School. His best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension....
    : One-Dimensional Man
    One-Dimensional Man

    One-Dimensional Man is a work by Herbert Marcuse, first published in 1964.One-Dimensional Man offers the reader a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the Soviet model of communism, documenting the parallel rise of new forms of social repression in both these societies as well as the decline of revolutionary po...
     (1964)
  • Guy Debord
    Guy Debord

    Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, Hypergraphics and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International ....
    : The Society of the Spectacle
    The Society of the Spectacle

    The Society of the Spectacle is a work of philosophy and critical theory by Situationist International and Marxist theorist, Guy Debord. It was first published in 1967....
     (1967)
  • Harry Braverman
    Harry Braverman

    Harry Braverman was an American Socialist and political writer. He sometimes used the pseudonym Harry Frankel.Braverman was born on the 9th December 1920 in New York City....
    : Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century (1974)
  • Michel Foucault
    Michel Foucault

    Michel Foucault was a French philosophy, historian, intellectual, Critical theory and sociologist. He held a chair at the Coll?ge de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley....
    : Discipline and Punish
    Discipline and Punish

    Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison is a book written by the philosopher Michel Foucault. Originally published in 1975 in France under the title Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison, it was translated into English in 1977....
     (1975)
  • Cornelius Castoriadis
    Cornelius Castoriadis

    Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greeks-France philosopher, economist and psychoanalyst. Author of the The Imaginary Institution of Society, co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group and 'philosopher of autonomy'....
    : The Imaginary Institution of Society (1975)
  • Joseph Weizenbaum
    Joseph Weizenbaum

    Joseph Weizenbaum was a German-American author and professor emeritus of computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Born in Berlin, Germany to Jewish parents, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1935, emigrating with his family to the United States....
    : Computer Power and Human Reason
    Computer Power and Human Reason

    Joseph Weizenbaum's influential 1976 book Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment To Calculation displays his ambivalence towards computer technology and lays out his case: while artificial intelligence may be possible, we should never allow computers to make important decisions because computers will always lack human qualities s...
     (1976)
  • Howard Zinn
    Howard Zinn

    Howard Zinn is a professor, political science, history, Social criticism, democratic socialist, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller A People's History of the United States....
    : A People's History of the United States
    A People's History of the United States

    A People's History of the United States is a 1980 nonfiction book by United States historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn seeks to present History of the United States through the eyes of those rarely heard in mainstream histories....
     (1980)


and many of the writings of Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu was an acclaimed France Sociology and writer known for his outspoken political views and public engagement. One of the principal players in French intellectual life, Bourdieu became the "intellectual reference" for movements opposed to neo-liberalism and globalisation that developed in France and elsewhere during the 1990s....


Contemporary authors

  • Judith Butler
    Judith Butler

    Judith Butler is an United States post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics....
    , Gender Trouble
    Gender Trouble

    Gender Trouble by Judith Butler is a highly influential book in academic feminism and queer theory. It is also the book credited with creating the germinal notion of gender performativity....
     (1989)
  • Giannina Braschi
    Giannina Braschi

    Poet and novelist Giannina Braschi is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States....
    , "Yo-Yo Boing!" (1998)
  • Raewyn Connell
    Raewyn Connell

    Raewyn Connell is an Australian social sciences known for her work in the disciplines of sociology, education, gender studies, political science and history....
    , Masculinities (1995)
  • Noam Chomsky
    Noam Chomsky

    Avram Noam Chomsky is an United States linguistics, philosopher, cognitive science, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
    : Manufacturing Consent (1988), Profit over people (2000)
  • Simon Head: The New Ruthless Economy. Work and Power in the Digital Age, Oxford UP 2005
  • Gilbert Rist
    Gilbert Rist

    Gilbert Rist is a professor at the institut universitaire d'?tudes du d?veloppement in Geneva. He is best known for his ground-breaking study of the concept and practice of development....
    , The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith, Expanded Edition, London: Zed Books, 2003
  • Lampert Khen, Traditions of Compassion; from Religious duty to Social Activism, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005


Sources



See also

  • Ableism
    Ableism

    Ableism is a neologism of United States coinage, since about 1981. It is used to describe discrimination against people with disabilities in favor of people who are not disabled....
  • African Cinema
    African cinema

    The term African cinema usually refers to the film production in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa following formal independence, which for many countries happened in the 1960s....
    , African American literature
    African American literature

    African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. The genre traces its origins to the works of such late 18th century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives and the Harlem Renaissance, and continuing today with author...
  • Adultism
    Adultism

    Adultism is a predisposition towards adults, which some see as biased against children, youth, and all young people who are not addressed or viewed as adults....
    , Ageism
    Ageism

    Ageism refers to the stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals or groups because of their age. It is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to justify age based prejudice and discrimination....
    , Children's rights movement
    Children's rights movement

    The Children's Rights Movement is a historical and modern movement committed to the acknowledgment, expansion, and/or regression of the rights of children around the world....
  • Antisemitism
  • class struggle
    Class struggle

    Class struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialism perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
    , council communism
    Council communism

    Council communism is a far-left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. Its primary organization was the Communist Workers Party of Germany ....
    , Labour movement
    Labour movement

    The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working class, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and political governments, in particular through the implementation of labour and employment law....
    , exploitation
    Exploitation

    The term "exploitation" may carry two distinct meanings:# The act of utilizing something for any purpose. In this case, exploit is a synonym for use....
  • Biopolitics
    Biopolitics

    The term "biopolitics" or "biopolitical" can refer to several different yet compatible concepts....
  • Critical pedagogy
    Critical pedagogy

    Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach that attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate....
    , Sociology of education
    Sociology of education

    The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affects education and its outcome. It is most concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education....
  • Critical theory
    Critical theory

    In the humanities and social sciences, critical theory is the examination and critique of society and literature, drawing from knowledge across social sciences and humanities disciplines....
  • Critique of technology
    Critique of technology

    Critique of technology is a theory which criticizes technology for alleged negative impact under conditions of advanced technological development....
    , Development criticism
    Development criticism

    Development criticism refers to criticisms of modern technology, industrialization, capitalism and economic globalization . A closely related, overlapping concept is anti-modernism....
  • Eurocentrism
    Eurocentrism

    Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture....
  • Feminism
    Feminism

    Feminism is the belief that women should have equal political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights to men. It involves various movements, Theory, and philosophies, all concerned with issues of gender difference, that advocate equality for women and that campaign for women's rights and interests....
    , Women's movement, Women's studies
    Women's studies

    Women's studies is an interdisciplinary List of academic disciplines devoted to topics concerning women, feminism, gender identity, and politics....
    , Women's Cinema
    Women's cinema

    The term women's cinema usually refers to the work of women film directors. It can also designate the work of other women behind the camera such as cinematographers and screenwriters....
  • Ideology
    Ideology

    An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society....
    , Criticism of religion
    Criticism of religion

    Criticism of religion involves criticism of the concept of religion, the validity of religion, the practice of religion, and the consequences of religion....
    , Critique of capitalism, Critique of technology
    Critique of technology

    Critique of technology is a theory which criticizes technology for alleged negative impact under conditions of advanced technological development....
  • Imperialism
    Imperialism

    Imperialism has two meanings; one describing an action and the other describing an attitude.#Action: Imperialism is the practice of extending the power, control or rule by one country over areas outside its borders....
    , Militarism
    Militarism

    File:CaptainJ.R.Jellicoe.jpgMilitarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
    , Nationalism
    Nationalism

    Nationalism refers to an ideology, a feeling, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all Expert accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a Modernity phenomenon originating in Europe....
  • Hegemonic masculinity
    Hegemonic masculinity

    In gender studies, hegemonic masculinity refers to the idea that a culturally normative ideal of male behaviour exists , which is calculated to guarantee the dominant position of some men over others, and the subordination of women....
    , Heterosexism
    Heterosexism

    Heterosexism is a term that applies to negative Attitude , bias, and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships. It can include the presumption that everyone is Heterosexuality or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the norm and therefore superior....
    , Homophobia
    Homophobia

    Homophobia is an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Some definitions lack the "irrational" component....
  • LGBT social movements
    LGBT social movements

    Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender social movements share related goals of social acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism....
  • Anarchism
    Anarchism

    Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
    , Surrealism
    Surrealism

    Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
    , Situationist International
  • New social movements
    New social movements

    The term new social movements is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various Western world societies roughly since the mid-1960s which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement social paradigm....
  • Pamphlet
    Pamphlet

    A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and stapled at the crease to make a simple book....
    , Satire
    Satire

    Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
    , Utopian and dystopian fiction
    Utopian and dystopian fiction

    The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel....
  • Political Cinema
    Political cinema

    Political Cinema in the narrow sense of the term is a cinema which portrays current or historical events or social conditions in a partisan way in order to inform or to agitate the spectator....
    , Political theatre
    Political theatre

    In the history of theatre, there is long tradition of performances addressing issues of current events and central to society itself, encouraging consciousness and social change....
  • Post-structuralism
    Post-structuralism

    Post-structuralism encompasses the intellectual developments of continental philosophy and critical theory who wrote with tendencies of French philosophy#20th century....
    , Critical Theory
    Critical theory

    In the humanities and social sciences, critical theory is the examination and critique of society and literature, drawing from knowledge across social sciences and humanities disciplines....
  • Colonialism
    Colonialism

    Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
    , Anticolonialism, Neocolonialism
    Neocolonialism

    Neocolonialism is a term used by post-colonial critics of developed countries' involvement in the developing world. Critics of neocolonialism argue that existing or past international economic arrangements created by former colonial powers were or are used to maintain control of their former colonies and dependencies after the decoloniza...
    , Post-Colonialism
  • Racism
    Racism

    Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
    , Racism in the United States
    Racism in the United States

    Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era. Historically, the country has been dominated by a settler of religiously and ethnically diverse White American....
    , Antiracism
  • Sexism
    Sexism

    Sexism, a term coined in the late 20th century, refers to the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other....
  • Whiteness studies
    Whiteness studies

    Whiteness studies is an interdisciplinary arena of academic inquiry focused on the cultural, historical and sociological aspects of white people, and the social construction of whiteness as an ideology tied to social status....