Habermas and Giddens on Praxis and Modernity: A Constructive Comparison (Key Issues in Modern Sociology)

This major new contribution forms a constructive comparison of the social theories of Jürgen Habermas and Anthony Giddens that focuses on their approaches to modernity, their endeavours to develop new perspectives, and their critical rethinking of the modernist vision of an autonomous society. Habermas and Giddens are shown to have initiated new paradigms in social theory that seek to reformulate the connection between subjectivity and history. The book assesses their arguments for the practical transformation of contemporary society and their conceptions of the systematic impediments to realising justice and emancipation. It develops an original perspective on the core intuitions that animate the work of these two theorists through detailing their attempts to incorporate, satisfy and rework the intentions of the perspective of the Marxian philosophy of practice. Habermas and Giddens have distinctively sought to relate their theories to projects of progressive social change, and the book evaluates their attempts to formulate the political implications of these theories, especially with respect to the future of social democracy, critical theory, and the European Union. The book connects recent perspectives on modernity, like those of multiple modernities and global modernity, to a critical dialogue with the work of Habermas and Giddens.