1/26/2012

Critical theory

Natalie Barker-Ruchti

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Outline

Ppt input about humanism and critical theory

Example of a study that employed a critical theoretical perspective
Your own practice in developing a critical research project

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Aims
You will:
- Be introduced to critical theoretical research and understand what it is
about
- Be able to place critical research within scientific paradigms
- Get a sense of what it might mean to use a critical theoretical approach to
doing research

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Placing Critical Theory within scientific paradigms

Paradigm
Logical
empiricism

Paradigm
Logical
positivism

Post-positivism

Humanism:
Interpretive/Critical

Post-structuralism/
post-modernism

One reality

One reality

One reality/
Soft realism

One reality/
Critical realism/
Historical realism

Multiple realities

One truth

One truth

One truth

One truth

Multiple truths

Objective

Objective/Subjective

Subjective

Subjective

Quantitative

Quant./qual.

Qualitative

Qualitative

Ontology

Epistemology
Objective
Methodology
Quantitative

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Humanism and critical paradigm

Reaction to a lack of answers the positivist paradigm could provide on social
issues and human behaviours
Realisation of complexity of social world and peoples definition of their own
meanings
Understanding of how individuals views of themselves and the world are more
influenced by social and historical forces than previously believed
Issues of power

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Critical theory: Background

Critical approach emerged from Marxist theory
Frankfurt School (Frankfurt Institute of Social Research founded in 1923)
Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979); Theodor Adorno (1903-1969); Max
Horkheimer (1895-1973); Walter Benjamin (1892-1940); Jrgen Habermas
(1929-)
Many critical theories
Critical tradition is always changing and evolving
Critical theory attempts to avoid too much specificity to allow
disagreements

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Critical theory: Concerns

Issues of power and justice
The ways economy, race, class, gender, ideologies, discourses,
education, religion and other social institutions interact and construct a
social system
Researchers in the critical paradigm locate individual actions within relations
of dominance and subordination that, according to them, characterise the
world we live in (Markula & Silk, 2011, p. 39).

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A criticalist
A detective that attempts to use her or
his work as a form of social or cultural
criticism. He/she accepts certain basic
assumptions:
All thought is fundamentally constructed and mediated by socio-historically
constituted power relations;
Facts cannot be isolated from the domain of values or removed from some
form of ideological inscription;
The relationship between concept and object and between signifier and
signified is never stable or fixed and is often constructed and mediated by
social relations of capitalist production and consumption;

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1/26/2012

Language is central to the formation of subjectivity;

Certain social groups are privileged over others and, although the
reasons for this privileging varies, the oppression that characterizes
contemporary societies is most forcefully reproduced when those
subordinated accept their social status as natural, necessary or
inevitable;
Oppression has many faces focusing on one only elides the interconnections among factors;
Mainstream research practices are generally implicated in the reproduction of systems of class, race, and gender oppression.

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Aims of critical research

Deconstruction

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Transformation
Political
Emancipation/empowerment
Research that aspires to the name
critical must be connected to an
attempt to confront the injustice of a
particular society or public sphere within
the society. Research thus becomes a
transformative endeavor unembarrassed
by the label political and unafraid to
consummate a relationship with
emancipatory consciousness (Kincheloe &
McLaren, year, p. 305, emphasis mine).

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The researcher in critical theoretical research

Preparedness for self-reflection and
critique
Questioning of own status of authority
Change of own assumptions
Risk to be political may also mean to
enter lines of fire

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Critical theory:
Research questions
How are
assumptions/
ideologies (also
culture)
maintained and
strengthened?

How does
language
construct
inequalities`?

Topic
How does
instrumental/
technical
rationality
influence
individuals?

How could
things be
different?

How do power
interests b/n
groups and
individuals
compete with
one another?

How are
individuals and
groups
prevented from
shaping their
lives?

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Example
Kane, M.J. & Maxwell, D. (2011). Expanding the boundaries of sport media
research: Using critical theory to explore consumer responses to
representations of womens sports. Journal of Sport Management, 25, pp.
202-216.
What does the research entail in terms of:
Background/problem of research topic?
Purpose/aims of research project?
Research questions?
Theoretical framework?
Social and scientific significance?

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Womens artistic gymnastics in Sweden

Background:
- Swedish gymnasts are relatively unknown and internationally only moderately
successful
- Swedish culture conflicts with idea of childhood high-performance sports
- Recent debate about artistic gymnastics in the media:
- Various coming-outs of former gymnasts who say they experienced forms of abuse
- Medical doctors and other experts advocate against long hours of training at a young
age
- Many have spoken out to say that problems related to gymnastics training do not exist
in Sweden

- International research shows that female gymnasts experience forms of abuse

and suffer severe/long-term injuries, emotional distress/disturbance/illness and
problems after retirement

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Critical research on womens artistic gymnastics

Develop a research project investigating womens artistic gymnastics
using a critical theoretical approach
Define/specify a topic that you could investigate in order to transform the
situation in gymnastics. Develop some research purpose/aims and formulate
3 research questions
Critical theoretical research questions from slide 14:
How are assumptions/ideologies (also culture) maintained and strengthened?
How does language construct inequalities?

How
How
How
How

do power interests between groups and individuals compete with one another?
are individuals and groups prevented from shaping their lives?
could things be different?
does instrumental/technical rationality influence individuals?

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Summary
Critical theory can be placed within humanist paradigm
Major concerns of critical theory are issues of power and justice and the ways
economy, race, class, gender, ideologies, discourses, education, religion and
other social institutions interact and construct a social system
Main aims of critical theory are a commitment to deconstruction and
transformation political activity
Many ways to achieve this, including study of language, institutions,
relationships, ideologies and assumptions, dominant practices/customs
Researcher is critical of own authority and research practices

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Exam questions
1. Name the two major concerns of critical theoretical research. Why do
criticalists adopt these foci?
2. Why would a critical researcher be critical of his or her own research?
3. Indicate two research areas a criticalist might choose when studying
sport coaching? For one of the areas you name, explain how it may be
related to issues of power and possibly injustice.

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Further readings
Markula, P. & Silk, M. (2011). Paradigmatic approaches to physical culture, in
P. Markula & M. Silk (eds.) Qualitative Research for Physical Culture (pp. 2456). New York: Palgrave.
Kincheloe, J.L. & McLaren, P. (2005). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative
research, in N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (eds.) The Sage Handbook of
Qualitative Research (pp. 303-342). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Potrac, P. & Barrett, S. (2010). Jrgen Habermas: Communicative action, the
system, and the lifeworld: Critiquing social interaction in coaching, in R. Jones,
P. Potrac, C. Cushion, & L.T. Ronglan (eds.) The Sociology of Sports
Coaching (pp.122-134). London: Routledge.

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Tack s mycket

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