ABSTRACT
The sociology of ideas is an emerging field in contemporary sociology. This chapter focuses on the sociology of one specific type of ideas, namely "critical" ideas. It also focuses on contemporary critical ideas, that is, critical ideas since the 1970s, whereas Randall Collins' perspective goes back to antiquity. The chapter provides a discussion on the main characteristics of critical theories. A first characteristic is that critical theories are increasingly globalised. The globalisation of critical theories is closely linked to their Americanisation. A third characteristic of critical theories is their professionalisation, that is the fact that critical thinkers today are almost exclusively academics. A fourth characteristic of critical thinkers is their increasingly distant relationship to politics. An interesting aspect of contemporary critical theories is that they contain many references to religion, mainly to Christianity and Judaism. The last aspect of contemporary critical theories is maybe the most important. It is the fact that Marxism is no longer hegemonic in critical theories.
