He Socio-critical paradigm Is a set of ideas, approaches and theories that react against the current of positivism.
These ideas raise the need to promote a rational and liberating autonomy for human beings. It is also known today as an investigative approach that promotes mass participation and self-reflection.
Horkheimer and Adorno
It seeks to overcome all reductionism and conservatism of industrial society. The socio-critical paradigm is based on the" Critical theory" from Theodor Adorno Y Max Horkheimer , Who in the 1920s created - along with other German thinkers - the well-known Frankfurt School.
The founders of this school were interested in elucidating how the capitalism Dominated and shaped the behavior of people. We also talk about the socio-critical paradigm as an investigative approach that hopes to overcome the positivist because it is a reductionist of the human condition.
Object of study of the socio-critical paradigm
The socio-critical paradigm deals with: studying reality as praxis, uniting theory and practice using knowledge, including broad participation in research processes and orienting knowledge towards the emancipation and liberation of the human being.
The processes of self-reflection and consensus-making are transverse axes of the socio-critical paradigm. Its authors are based on the assumption that capitalism creates social relations that fragment work and study giving rise to a human being with little reflective capacity.
Habermas argues that"knowledge is never a product of individuals or groups of people with concerns away from everyday life; On the contrary, it is always constituted on the basis of interests that have been developed from the natural needs of the human species."
For its exponents the socio-critical paradigm seeks the transformation of the structure of social relations and never renounces its ideological precepts. For its creators, self-reflection and criticism are the answer to the problems generated by society.
Origins of the socio-critical paradigm
The ideological and philosophical journey that presupposes reaching the socio-critical paradigm is long, especially because all new theories or paradigms have much to do with the previous ones.
This model bases its ideas on the historical and dialectical materialism of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the nineteenth century. Marxist philosophy - through the Soviet school - generated an intellectual movement of thinkers and writers in the twentieth century that criticized capitalism and forms of imperial domination.
In this sense, in the materialist conception of Marx's history, it is considered that only matter exists and based on the consciousness of it is that the emancipation of man is to be achieved.
Frankfurt School
The socio-critical paradigm owes to the advances of the Frankfurt School its main contributions. In principle it is founded as"Institute of Social Sciences of Frankfurt"but later it is denominated of like Frankfurt School.
It was composed of a group of social researchers who were interested in the theories of Hegel, Marx and Freud . It is the founding nucleus of the call "Critical Theory" Which analyzes the social and historical conditions of capitalist society and the man who inhabits it.
Adorno and Horkheimer became in the 60s in the representatives of greater intellectual stature of the Critical theory with "Dialectic of the Enlightenment", A work in which they analyze the pre-existing conditions of mass society and the instrumental reason behind the imperial centers of power.
The"critical theory"coming from the Frankfurt School constitutes the immediate antecedent and maximum theoretical-ideological reference when talking about the socio-critical paradigm.
Main exponents
Theodor Adorno
Adorno (1903-1969) is one of the founders of the Frankfurt School And main exponent of critical thinking. He was distinguished by his researches in the field of philosophy, sociology, psychology, communicology and musicomania. He was always attached to Marxist thought.
His transcendental works are" Education for liberation" Y "Dialectic of the Enlightenment" In which he questions capitalist society based on an instrumental reason that serves as a support to perpetuate exploitation and injustices.
Paulo Freire
Freire (1921-1997) was an educator and educator of Brazilian origin. Freire's work is merely educational and is called "Critical pedagogy". It regards traditional education as a Bank education "In which it is instructed to deposit knowledge and not to make reflection and release.
In his work"Pedagogy of the oppressed"he proposes that there must be a critical albanization for the human being to move towards the liberation of the ideological oppression that leads to slopes from slavery.
Jürgen Habermas
Habermas (1929) is a German philosopher and sociologist who has worked on ethics, education, political philosophy and law. Belongs to the" second generation" Of the members of the Frankfurt School . His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and is the top reference of the moment of the Critical theory And the socio-critical paradigm.
Kant and Marx are the most notable influences in the work of Habermas. In 1984 he wrote his book "Theory of Communicative Action", A work in which he delivers important milestones of contemporary thought and the new role of social criticism.
Balance of the socio-critical paradigm
The socio-critical paradigm emerges as a historical response to the capitalist system and its implicit logic.
From the ontological point of view, the paradigm constitutes an important tool of human beings to move towards the transforming action starting from the critic.
Its main contribution in the educational field is that it adopts a global and dialectical vision of reality and proclaims a democratic view of knowledge as well as the processes involved in its elaboration.
The alleged critical social science points to self-reflective understanding and suggests that knowledge and its democratic reproduction presuppose the establishment of a social order superior to the existing one.
References
- Adorno, T; Horheimer, M. (1944) Dialectic of the Enlightenment. Editorial Sudamericana. Argentina.
- Freire, P. (1968) Pedagogy of the oppressed. Editorial Siglo XXI. Madrid.
- Fernandez, A. (2002) Philosophy, research, innovation and Good Practices. Editorial UNAM. Mexico.
- Marcuse, H. (1964) The One-Dimensional Man. Editorial Ariel. Mexico.
- Habermas, J. (1981) Theory of Communicative Action. Editorial Taurus. Spain.
- Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1988). Critical Theory of Teaching. Action research in teacher training.
- Habermas, J. (1988). The logic of the social sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.