@article{1439023,
      recid = {1439023},
      author = {Khandizaji, Amirhosein, and Caputi, Mary,},
      title = {David Riesman and critical theory : autonomy instead of  emancipation /},
      pages = {1 online resource},
      abstract = {Although David Riesman wrote over half a century ago, his  concept of autonomy as presented in The Lonely Crowd (1950)  speaks directly to the intellectual and emotional  disarrangements of the twenty-first century. The current  malaise produced by the excesses of commodity culture,  information technology, the hyperreal, and "fake news"  militate against our ability to think critically about  contemporary society. And while postmodern authors insist  that this bewildering situation weakens and assails our  critical thinking skills, Riesmans notion of autonomy  refuses to capitulate to such a somber interpretation.  Rather, he is convinced that individuals have the  intellectual and emotional mettle to think for themselves  and not be drawn into the demands of a commercialized  culture and a commodity-driven lifestyle. As we pick and  choose the terms of our engagement, we can remain aloof  from societys engulfing influence and preserve the  oppositional thinking needed for democracy. To illustrate  this point most clearly, this book puts Riesman into  conversation with the writings of Theodor Adorno, whose  evaluation of the critical facultys ability to withstand  "the culture industry" is famously pessimistic. Amirhosein  Khandizaji is the author of "The Victory of Instrumental  Reason and Farewell to Variety (Xenomoi Verlag, 2013) and  of Baudrillard and the Culture Industry (Springer, 2017).  He is the editor of Reading Adorno: the Endless Road  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and the founding editor of  Berlin Journal of Critical Theory. Mary Caputi is Professor  in the Department of Political Science at California State  University, Long Beach, USA. She is the author of Feminism  and Power: the Need for Critical Theory (Lexington, 2013),  A Kinder, Gentler America: Melancholia and the Mythical  1950s (Minnesota, 2005), co-editor of Teaching Marx and  Critical Theory in the 21st Century, with Bryant Sculos  (Brill, 2019), and co-editor of Jacques Derrida and the  Future of the Liberal Arts, with Vincent Del Casino  (Continuum, 2013). In addition to teaching at California  State University, Long Beach, she has taught at the  University of Venice, at California State University in  Florence, and at John Cabot University, Rome},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1439023},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78869-8},
}