ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at theoretical work that has gone under the name of critical including critical theory and talks about critical practice. Critical theory was described and promoted as a reaction to 'traditional' theory. The notion of critical theory was developed and defined by German sociologist Max Horkheimer, one of the founders of the Frankfurt School or the Institute for Social Research established in 1923 in Germany. In his 1937 essay Traditional and Critical Theory Horkheimer identified critical theory as a social theory orientated toward critiquing and changing society. The critical theorists researched a wide range of social, political, philosophical, psychoanalytic and cultural topics and built up an extensive body of work ranging from empirical studies to philosophical theorization. Karl Marx developed his theory in collaboration with Friedrich Engels in the nineteenth century. He was born in Trier in German and moved to London in 1849.
