'Thought-provoking and essential reading for anyone interested in the state of contemporary critical theory and possible pathways for the renewal of its original emancipatory aims.'
Lois McNay, Professor of Political Theory, University of Oxford

'The book points beyond the recognition approach to social research and offers the foundations for a critical theory of society that reconnects with the founding aspirations of the Frankfurt School.'
Gerard Delanty, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex

'Harris's book renews the faith that critique can once again be fused with emancipatory political purpose and the best traditions of modern reason.'
Michael J. Thompson, Professor of Political Theory, William Paterson University

In the neoliberal world of the twenty-first century, the progressive academy urgently needs a vehicle for normative social research. Critical theory once answered this call, but today its programme is in crisis. The 'pathologies of recognition' approach, popular among contemporary critical theorists, aids neoliberalism rather than challenging it, in part because it is unable to grasp the structural nature of power.

To offer an alternative, this book returns to the work of Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse, using it as the basis for a revivified social theoretical foundation. As the first generation of critical theorists knew, thought itself can be reified, our imaginations debased, and our desires artificially induced. We need to think beyond recognition and embrace a more potent and aggressive form of social critique, true to the founding spirit of the Frankfurt School.