Critical Theory and Practice: Bridging the Global and the Personal. A Lecture

Abstract

Purpose

This paper draws the connection between constructivist methods and critical theory and offers examples of the wide reach and analytical power of critical theorizing.

Methodology/approach

I lay out the potential for the scope of critical theory, and then I illuminate that scope by analyzing two vastly different subjects – the global indigenous rights movement and breastfeeding policies in the United States – through a constructivist lens.

Findings

How political identities and practices are constructed has important implications for the work they do in shaping our conceptions of legitimacy.

Originality/value

This paper brings critical theory to bear on the politics and policies of breastfeeding in the United States, unmasking the work that breastfeeding does in producing and reproducing identities, status, race, class, and competitive labor.

Citation

Jung, C. (2015), "Critical Theory and Practice: Bridging the Global and the Personal. A Lecture", Globalization, Critique and Social Theory: Diagnoses and Challenges (Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Vol. 33), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 189-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0278-120420150000033006