ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on critical theory and critical social theory. The term Critical Theory refers to the work of the Institute for Social Research, known as the Frankfurt School, a group of mostly Jewish, Marxist intellectuals who left Germany for the USA following the rise of Nazism. Marx provided an analysis that highlighted the fetishisation of commodities; that is, the tendency for impersonal economic and social structures and processes to appear to take on a life of their own. One of the best known critical social theorists is, of course, Karl Marx. Casey also seeks to return the social to critical theory, to show that critical social theory can be used not only to analyze developments in the cultural sphere, but in the sphere of production and purposeful creative action.
