Critical psychology is a perspective on psychology that draws extensively on critical theory. Critical psychology challenges the assumptions,theories and methods of mainstream psychology and attempts to apply psychological understandings in different ways.
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought,Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In Categories,Aristotle similarly proposed that all objects have a substance that,as George Lakoff put it,"make the thing what it is,and without which it would be not that kind of thing". The contrary view—non-essentialism—denies the need to posit such an "essence". Essentialism has been controversial from its beginning. In the Parmenides dialogue,Plato depicts Socrates questioning the notion,suggesting that if we accept the idea that every beautiful thing or just action partakes of an essence to be beautiful or just,we must also accept the "existence of separate essences for hair,mud,and dirt".
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons,especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic,in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Formerly applied primarily to economic,political,or religious theories and policies,in a tradition going back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,more recent use treats the term as mainly condemnatory.
Populism is a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of the common people and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite group. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed in the late 19th century and has been applied to various politicians,parties and movements since that time,often as a pejorative. Within political science and other social sciences,several different definitions of populism have been employed,with some scholars proposing that the term be rejected altogether.
Ernesto Laclau was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner,Chantal Mouffe.
Jonathan Potter is a British psychologist and Dean of the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. He is one of the pioneers of discursive psychology.
Discourse analysis (DA),or discourse studies,is an approach to the analysis of written,spoken,or sign language,including any significant semiotic event.
Modernization theory or modernisation theory holds that as societies become more economically modernized,wealthier and more educated,their political institutions become increasingly liberal democratic. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s,most influentially articulated by Seymour Lipset,drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx,Emile Durkheim,Max Weber,and Talcott Parsons. Modernization theory was a dominant paradigm in the social sciences in the 1950s and 1960s,and saw a resurgence after 1991,when Francis Fukuyama wrote about the end of the Cold War as confirmation on modernization theory.
Seymour Martin Lipset was an American sociologist and political scientist. His major work was in the fields of political sociology,trade union organization,social stratification,public opinion,and the sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote extensively about the conditions for democracy in comparative perspective. He was president of both the American Political Science Association (1979–1980) and the American Sociological Association (1992–1993). A socialist in his early life,Lipset later moved to the right,and was considered to be one of the first neoconservatives.
Donald Thomas Campbell was an American social scientist. He is noted for his work in methodology. He coined the term evolutionary epistemology and developed a selectionist theory of human creativity. A Review of General Psychology survey,published in 2002,ranked Campbell as the 33rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Robert Paul Abelson was a Yale University psychologist and political scientist with special interests in statistics and logic.
Charles Abram Ellwood was an American sociologist who was professor of sociology at University of Missouri-Columbia and Duke University. He has been described as one of the leading American sociologists of the interwar period,studying intolerance,communication and revolutions and using many multidisciplinary methods.
David A. Snow is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California,Irvine.
Yannis Stavrakakis is a Greek–British political theorist. A member of the Essex School of discourse analysis,he is mainly known for his explorations of the importance of psychoanalytic theory for contemporary political and cultural analysis and for his discourse studies on populism.
Academic bias is the bias or perceived bias of scholars allowing their beliefs to shape their research and the scientific community. It can refer to several types of scholastic prejudice,e.g.,logocentrism,phonocentrism,ethnocentrism or the belief that some sciences and disciplines rank higher than others.
A critical theory is any approach to humanities and social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to attempt to reveal,critique,and challenge or dismantle power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism,it argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions than from individuals. Some hold it to be an ideology,others argue that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation. Critical theory finds applications in various fields of study,including psychoanalysis,film theory,literary theory,cultural studies,history,communication theory,philosophy,and feminist theory.
Online deliberation is a broad term used to describe many forms of non-institutional,institutional and experimental online discussions. The term also describes the emerging field of practice and research related to the design,implementation and study of deliberative processes that rely on the use of electronic information and communications technologies (ICT).
Political cognition refers to the study of how individuals come to understand the political world,and how this understanding leads to political behavior. Some of the processes studied under the umbrella of political cognition include attention,interpretation,judgment,and memory. Most of the advancements in the area have been made by scholars in the fields of social psychology,political science,and communication studies.
Hande Eslen-Ziya is a Turkish-born,Norway-based sociologist and psychologist. She is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Populism,Anti-Gender and Democracy Research Group at the University of Stavanger in Norway. She has an established interest in gender and social inequalities,transnational organizations and social activism,and has a substantial portfolio of research in this field. Her research has been published in Gender,Work and Organisation,Emotion,Space and Society,Social Movement Studies,European Journal of Women’s Studies,Culture,Health and Sexuality,Leadership,Men and Masculinities,and Social Politics,as well as in other internationally recognized journals. She is known for her work on the concept of "troll science," that she describes as an alternative discourse created by right-wing populist ideologies such as the anti-gender movement in opposition to established scholarly discourse.
William R. Schonfeld is an American political scientist,author,researcher,educator and university administrator. He holds the position of research professor of Political Science at the University of California,Irvine (UCI) and served as Dean of the School of Social Sciences from 1982 to 2002,making him the longest serving academic administrator in the history of the campus.
