ABSTRACT
Social theory is shown to be conditioned by constitutive tensions and its dual political imaginary. These tensions generate a variety of antinomies and a heightened reflexivity concerning social theory’s basic dilemmas. It is argued that the antinomy of social theory as a project and as an institution is particularly pronounced in the present. The project of social theory gained strong impetus from the paradigmatic initiatives and programmatic works of theorists like Habermas, Foucault and Giddens, during the last third of the twentieth century. It is contended that social theory’s efflorescence was stimulated by capitalist modernity’s cleavages during that period and that these cleavages sharpened its constitutive dilemmas, such as those of structure and action, theory and practice. The analysis highlights how these developments and initiatives substantially contributed to social theory’s institution, enabling the construction of an intellectual field, inspiring new social theory journals and precipitating international research networks. Despite this institutional legacy’s importance, it is argued that subsequent modifications in capitalist modernity, the changing horizon of the political imaginary, the characteristics of some subsequent theoretical perspectives and their diagnoses of the times, and internal debates within the field, have led to a certain disorientation in social theory concerning its project.
