Critical theory

Submitted by Monika Tiwary

MSW-I

DEFINATION
Critical theory is a school of thaughts that
stresses the reflective assessment and critique
of society and culture by applying knowledge
from the social sciences and the humanities.
As a term critical theory has two meanings
with different origins and histories: the first
originated in literary criticism, whereby it is
used and applied as an umbrella term that can
describe a theory as critical insofar as it seeks
to liberate human beings from the
circumstances that enslave them.

the frankfurt school

The term Critical Theory emerged from the work of a

group of mostly German philosopher known as the

Frankfurt school. Important figures included Walter
Benjamin, Theodor Adomo and Max Horkhiemer. The
Frankfurt school philosopher were heavily influenced
by the events of the first half of the 20 th century
particularly the first and the second world wars, the
failure of working class Marxist revolution and
Nazism. They sought , primarily through criticism to
undermine social orthodoxy, whether it was
communist or capitalist, in order to help bring about
radical social change.

Critical theory in social work

Critical theory is Social Work explains social
problem as arising from various forms of
oppression.
Critical theory in Social Work are transformable,
proposing that social work should seek to change
the way societies create social problems.
It rejects capitalist, economic liberal or economic
rational approaches to managing economies
either because of ideological objectives or
because they are inconsistent with a resonable
level of welfare provision.

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The main element of radical and critical theory
include a focus on structural rather than personal
explanation of social problem and a concern for
inequality and oppression.
Critical practice seeks to promote consciousness
raising about social inequalities, political action
and social change because this helps to combat
cultural hegemony, through which powerful
people maintain a social order that benefits them
by integrating social believe into peoples cultural
life through ifluence in the media and education.

theoretical analysis and application

Critical theory is about contrasting the ideals of a
society with its actual condition.
Social worker can apply Critical theory by carying
out such an analysis and then attempting to
improve the actual conditions of group of people.
Revolutionary actions are not needed to bring
about a change, indeed they can affect a lot of
change just by bringing to light that the actual
conditions of a society do not line up to its ideals
and then working to move those conditions to
meet the society ideals more closely.

Practical application
In practice critical theory is perhaps best
applied to policy initiatives advocacy. By
initiatives and advocacy. By analysing the real
condition of under previleged or marginal
groups, group worker can pin point thing that
needs to change , through both democratic
process and grass root community
involvement.