ABSTRACT
In sketching a framework in which to locate these questions, I shall treat this phenomenon of theoretical regeneration as both an intellectual and a social issue, claiming that these two aspects are inseparably intertwined to provide the theoretical developments of the last ten years. On the one hand, the movements of legal theory respond to the inner logic of earlier positions within the field. Theory orients itself, or rather is oriented, within an already established set of intellectual practices and paradigms, which it works to repeat or change. Theory responds to what already exists, revealing, with the benefit of hindsight, an inherent logic, whether of continuity or discontinuity. In one sense, the production of theory, as described, is already a social process, for it occurs within a tradition provided by a community of intellectuals (Bhaskar, 1979, Chapter 1; Outhwaite, 1978, Chapters 1 and 2; Bourdieu, 1988). However, there is also a broader sense in which the intellectual is social, for the production of ideas occurs within given socio-economic conditions, at two different but connected levels.
