Critical Theory
Petr Ocelík
ESSn4007 / MEBn4001
Outline
• Critical theory: assumptions
• Critical theory in IR
• Security as emancipation
Critical theory: assumptions
• Not an IR theory but social theory emphasizing importance of social and cultural structures
• The social world primarily consists of socioeconomic structures which are legitimized by
dominant ideology (Marxist moment)
• These structures are objective (researcher-independent)
• Social actors are rational and capable to transform their environment (Kantian moment)
• Critical theory: what are these structures? How can these be removed?
Traditional vs. critical theory
• Max Horkheimer: Traditional vs. Critical Theory (1937)
• Traditional theories: explain and control certain phenomena
(naturalism and value-neutrality)
• Critical theories: (1) explain certain phenomena from systemic
perspective, (2) state a clear social goal, and (3) propose a practical
solution
• Critical theory in IR: problem-solving vs. critical theories (Robert Cox
1981)
Knowledge and emancipation
„…theory is always for someone and for some purpose“ (Cox 1981)
• Habermas’s (1968) argues that scientific knowledge is a “social question” and reflects
underlying social interests → three epistemological modes:
• Empirical-analytical (~ explanation-based): goal is to control
• Hermeneutic (~ interpretation-based): goal is to understand
• Critical (emancipatory): integrates both → goal is to distinguish which social regularities
are invariant and which are not
→ CT goes beyond nomological EA inquiry with ambition to reveal “ideologically frozen
relations of dependence that can in principle be transformed” (Habermas 1968)
Critical theory in IR
• General formula (Spegele 2002): I study international relations to emancipate [X]
from structure or condition [Y] in order to achieve [Z]
• E.g.: I study IR to emancipate workers in coal mines [X] from exploitative work
conditions [Y] in order to achieve more just society [Z]
• Link (Deadly fashion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SCHfV97D7I
• Link (Source): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buo8CNKOBME
Based on Galtung 1990
Critical security studies (CSS)
• CSS established at the University of Aberystwyth around authors
such as Ken Booth, Richard W. Jones, and Andrew Linklater
• Four dimensions of CSS (Jones 1999: 5):
• Broadening: inclusion of non-military issues
• Deepening: philosophical and political assumptions are reflected
• Extending: non-state actors are included (esp. human beings)
• Focusing: a clear normative objective (emancipation)
Security as derivative concept (deepening)
• Questions about security cannot be separated from the most basic
questions of political theory (Walker 1997)
• Security is an epiphenomenon of political theory (Booth 2007)
• There is no common substantive definition of security → it should be
seen and used instrumentally → as an emancipatory tool
Security as emancipation
• The “real security” is provided by emancipation
• Emancipation (Booth 1991: 319): the freeing of people from those
physical and human constraints which stop them carrying out what
they would freely choose to do
• The Critical theory is needed to (Booth 2007):
• Respond empirical curiosity
• Pursue moral politics
• Rise to the challenges of the time
• It calls for action (Booth’s emancipatory realism)
Emancipatory realism
We can begin or continue pursuing emancipation in what we research,
in how we teach, in what we put on conference agendas, in how much
we support Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Oxfam and other
groups identifying with a global community, and in how we deal with
each other and with students. And in pursuing emancipation, the bases
of real security are being established. (Booth 1991: 326)
Summary
• Assumption: there are oppressive structures that produce power
inequalities that endanger particular social groups
• The objective: politicization of the debate / transformation (removal
of oppressive structures) through emancipation
• Security = emancipation
• Active/activist role of the research: researcher should give a voice to
marginalized social groups