Critical Dialogues: Thinking Together in Turbulent Times

by John Clarke

Overview

In this engaging and original book, John Clarke is in conversation with 12 leading scholars about the dynamics of thinking critically in the social sciences. The conversations range across many fields and explore the problems and possibilities of doing critical intellectual work in ways that are responsive to changing conditions. By emphasising the many voices in play, in conversation with as well as against others, Clarke challenges the individualising myth of the heroic intellectual. He underlines the value of thinking critically, collaboratively and dialogically. The book also provides access to a sound archive of the original conversations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447351009
Publisher:	Policy Press
Publication date:	07/03/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	252
File size:	381 KB

About the Author

John Clarke, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, The Open University and Recurrent Visiting Professor, Central European University, Budapest. He is a member of the Association for Cultural Studies; the UK Social Policy Association, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for the Anthropology of North America and the Association for the Anthropology of Policy. He is also a member of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction: 'Voices in my head': Thinking critically as dialogic practice 1

Voices in my head 2

Thinking critically, but not alone 5

Thinking critically: with and against 7

Dialogic selves: thinking subjects 10

Introducing the voices 12

The missing voices 14

Listening to voices; or, how to use this book 18

1 Tania Murray Li 21

A collaborative-working puzzle 22

Making concepts work 30

Questions of conservative rule 33

The problem of work 34

2 Larry Grossberg 37

Talking through differences 38

Taking positions provisionally 42

The pains and pleasures of collaboration 44

Looking for the popular 49

3 Wendy Brown 53

Talking theory 54

The seductions of theory 57

Between theory and politics 62

A moment of ambivalence 66

4 Anu (Aradhana) Sharma 69

Thinking with multiple resources 70

Subjects behaving badly 72

What is an NGO? 76

Having troubling thoughts 80

5 Jeff Maskovsky 87

Paradoxes of popular politics 88

On political trajectories 91

Politics, certainty and ambivalence 94

6 Paul Stubbs 103

Being dragged out of place 104

Who studies policy? 107

Making up things - and places 111

The work of agency 113

The threat of being found out 117

7 Allan Cochrane 119

The Open University as a space for critical thinking 120

Opening up possibilities 125

Disciplines and interdisciplinary thinking 126

8 Fiona Williams 135

Coming to terms with social policy 136

Resistances and refusals 138

On contradictions and complexity 143

Back to social policy 148

9 Davina Cooper 151

In a world of disciplines? 152

Thinking beyond boundaries 154

The consequences of talking to people 157

Emerging projects and emerging identities 162

10 Gail Lewis 165

Thinking with others 166

Between certainty and uncertainty 170

Thinking with and through race 172

Dimensions and dynamics of crisis 180

Imagining other connections 183

11 Wendy Larner 185

Conversations within and beyond disciplines 186

Changing institutions 188

Unorthodox formations 191

On discourse as the practice of articulation 196

2 Janet Newman 203

On collaboration 204

The pessimism of critique 208

The Marxism and feminism thing 210

Looking for the current moment 212

Between collaborative and dialogic processes 216

Afterword 219

Keywords 225

References 231

Index 237

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"John Clarke’s career-long talent for enabling reflective critical debate is fully exemplified in these convivial exchanges with accomplished peers. Across the conversations, the complex politics of radicalism, ambivalence and ‘heteroglossia’ is collectively illuminated and advanced." Gregor McLennan, University of Bristol

"Ideas come iteratively: our ways of thinking are formed and developed in conversation with each other. This book shows how that process works, and why it works so well in talking to John Clarke." Richard Freeman, University of Edinburgh