Wrong Life: Studies in Lifeworld-grounded Critical Theory

by Steven P. Dandaneau (Editor), Maude Falcone (Editor)

Overview

This study is composed of a series of theoretical reflections inspired by empirical research into the ethical dilemmas of life in contradiction-ridden postmodern America. Adopting a phenomenological orientation toward their own situated, lifecourse experience, the authors dedicate chapters to subjects such as hospital birth, special education, Gen X, community-based anti-crime policy, public intellectuals, and mass death. Drawing primarily from the tradition of Frankfurt School critical theory, and inspired in particular by Theodore W. Arno's post-war aphorism, "wrong life cannot be lived rightly", this volume seeks to contribute to the project of an empirical critical theory (sociology) as a postmodern ethic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762304783
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:	09/24/1996
Series:	Social & Cultural Theories , #1
Edition description:	762nd ed.
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Lifeworld-grounded critical theory; mass birth - the lifeworld begins in the system; dried beans and Beethoven - the art of parenting the ineffable; Generation X - an essay on liberation; defensible space and the birth of neighbourhood panopticonism in Dayton, Ohio; dystopian elements in Richard Rorty's liberal utopia; mass death - exterminism, extinction, execution and excrement, et cetera, at the fin de siecle; why theorize?