New Books in Critical Theory

Kathleen Mcphillips and Naomi Goldenberg discuss their book 'The End of Religion: Feminist Reappraisals of the State'. They challenge the assumption that religion is natural and universal, exploring how it perpetuates oppressive systems. They introduce the concept of 'schedule state theory', discuss examples of the vestigial state in different contexts, and consider the potential policy implications of their theory.

Anthropologists Dr. Nancy Lindisfarne and Dr. Jonathan Neale challenge the idea of hierarchy and violence as inherent to human nature. They discuss topics such as bad science in evolutionary psychology, unique human childcare practices, the roots of sexism, the mystery of female orgasms, love as a prison and a prison break, and the connection between men's history and climate change.

Daniele Lorenzini, author of a groundbreaking examination of Michel Foucault’s history of truth, explores his project of the force of truth and new ethics and politics of truth-telling. They discuss Foucault's perspective on truth, the distinction between games and regimes of truth, subjects of critique in Foucault's genealogies, the mechanism of truth, Parisia as the act of truth-telling, and challenging normativity and shifting perspectives.

Dr. Claire Jean Kim explores the relationship between anti-Asian racism and structural anti-Blackness. The guest discusses the field of studying Asian Americans and race, emphasizing the importance of understanding the interconnectedness of discrimination. The chapter also explores the landmark Supreme Court decision in 1927 that ruled against a Chinese American schoolgirl's right to attend a white school. Examining the treatment of Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, highlighting the erasure of Supreme Court cases and the distinction made between the two groups. The chapter explores the concept of solidarity and the failure of the Asian American critique of white supremacy to address anti-black persecution.

Frederick V. Engram, advocate for Black liberation, discusses his book challenging anti-Blackness, patriarchy, and white supremacy. They explore digestible materials for liberation, Black women's work, consequences of white patriarchy, understanding white privilege, and reevaluating interactions.

Henrik Fürst and Erik Nylander discuss the value of art education in Swedish folk high schools, exploring admissions, teaching, assessments, students' experiences, and the importance of the arts. They evaluate Swedish cultural policy and its impact, the demographics and recruitment patterns of students, challenges faced by teachers and students in the admissions process, and the societal value of art education.

Racial capitalism, invisible but threaded throughout the world, shapes our lives. Focusing on the experiences of white, Black, and Latinx residents of Cincinnati, Sarah Mayorga argues that residents' interpretations of their circumstances, what she calls urban specters, are often partial recognitions of the exploitation and dehumanization produced by racial capitalism. In Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism (UNC Press, 2023), much scholarly work on racial capitalism has necessarily focused on historical, theoretical, and macro-level accounts. Mayorga takes these vital insights and applies them to two contemporary working-class neighborhoods, centering the lives of working-class and poor people. Using data from interviews with 117 residents, Mayorga maps how racial capitalism creates the everyday harms people know all too well. Chronic underdevelopment, private property, and policing, she shows, have produced these harms. In this enlightening book, Mayorga identifies small windows into abolitionist possibilities that create different types of relations, ones based on care and connection. This is a guide for anyone trying to understand urban inequality, but also more importantly, for how we might create a different world.Richard E. Ocejo is professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

How do migrants make sense of migration? In Coloniality and Meritocracy in unequal EU migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migration (Bristol UP, 2023), Simone Varriale, Lecturer in Sociology at Loughborough University, explores the experiences of Italian migrants to Britain to critique notions of meritocracy. Combining a rich set of interview data with a deep understanding of theories of colonialism, and inequality, the book rethinks the recent history of migration in the EU. The book challenges existing narratives of both who is a migrant and the meaning of migration, as well as critiquing stereotypes associated with Northern and Southern Europe. The book is essential reading across the social sciences and humanities, as well as for anyone wishing to understand inequality and migration today.Dave O'Brien is Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries, at the University of Manchester. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

In Brown Saviors and Their Others: Race, Caste, Labor, and the Global Politics of Help in India (Duke UP, 2023), Arjun Shankar draws from his ethnographic work with an educational NGO to investigate the practices of “brown saviors”—globally mobile, dominant-caste, liberal Indian and Indian diasporic technocrats who drive India’s help economy. Shankar argues that these brown saviors actually reproduce many of the racialized values and ideologies associated with who and how to help that have been passed down from the colonial period, while masking other operations of power behind the racial politics of global brownness. In India, these operations of power center largely on the transnational labor politics of caste. Ever attentive to moments of discomfort and complicity, Shankar develops a method of “nervous ethnography” to uncover the global racial hierarchies, graded caste stratifications, urban/rural distinctions, and digital panaceas that shape the politics of help in India. Through nervous critique, Shankar introduces a framework for the study of the global help economies that reckons with the ongoing legacies of racial and caste capitalism.Arjun Shankar is Assistant Professor of Culture and Politics at Georgetown University.Alize Arıcan is a Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Scholar at Boston University and an incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at CUNY—City College, focusing on urban renewal, futurity, care, and migration. You can find her on Twitter @alizearican. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Why study the arts in school? In Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life (Routledge, 2023), Pat Thomson, Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham and Christine Hall, Emeritus Professor and former Head of Education at the University of Nottingham, examine this question by introducing findings from the Tracking Arts Learning and Engagement (TALE) Project. The book reflects on perspectives of teachers, students, school managers, and arts organisations as to how “arts rich” schools are constituted and what is needed for them to survive and thrive. The book is offers deep theoretical and empirical insights, and will be accessible and essential reading across the arts and humanities, the social sciences, and for anyone interested in the value of arts education.Dave O'Brien is Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries, at the University of Manchester. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory