(Dis) Figurations

Recent paradigmatic shifts in favor of the 'discourse' approach in social theory are explored and debated

The author uses philosophy and media critique to explore paradigimatic shifts in the models which have long been the central metaphors governing the social sciences and focuses on the increasing centrality of the "discourse" approach in social theory.There has been, over the last decades, a deep crisis in the models which, for a long time, have been central metaphors governing thought and research in the social sciences. The main symptom in this paradigmatic shift has been the increasing centrality of the 'discourse' approach in social theory.
It is Ian Angus's aim here to explore thoroughly the philosophical implications of this shift. He does so by combining serious philosophical reflection with an analysis of the media, which draws on both the phenomenological tradition and the political concerns of the Frankfurt School, post-Marxism and radical democracy. Ranging over the work of Heidegger, Gramsci, Husserl, Levinas, McLuhan and many others, (Dis)figurations is not merely an analytic enterprise however; it is a comprehensive attempt at rethinking the whole project of a critical philosophy.