Reconstructing Critical Social Theory Conference, April 23-24, 2026

About

Critical social theory has arguably undergone three key phases: its insurgent origins in the 1840s through the 1860s, its institutionalization in the Second International in the 1890s through the early 1900s, and its decolonial and new left renewals in the 1960s. Critical social theory today is still departing from and building upon the insights of the 1960s generation. And yet, contemporary scholarship has not cohered around a strong center or clear set of theses, propositions, or theories. The project of critical social theory is at a moment of reconstruction.

Our ambition in this workshop is to help explore and map out the critical renewal of Marxist sociology. Our guiding questions are: what is happening to the “Marxish” project at this moment of generational shift in scholarship? What are the new ways capitalism’s “laws of motion” are being studied? How do seemingly non-class dynamics shape processes of exploitation, domination, and extraction? What do these suggest about the role of critical scholarship more broadly? How have recent developments in critical social theory shaped our understanding of emancipatory alternatives?

We sought papers that make contributions to three core areas of critical scholarship: 1) understanding the dynamics of capitalism, 2) understanding agents of transformation (new directions in class analysis + black Marxisms), and 3) understanding capitalism’s ecological dimensions (new radical ecologies). Other areas will however be considered. Our long-term ambition in this workshop is the production of a synthetic edited volume that will set a new standard for scholars working in the tradition of critical social theory broadly.

Program Organizers and Host Contacts

Michael McCarthy, Director of Community Studies, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz; Sr. Associate Editor: Critical Sociology

Hillary Angelo, Co-Founding Director of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Kevan Harris, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

Dylan Riley, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

Colleen Stone, Sociology Department Assistant, Administrative Coordinator of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies, and Manager of the Science & Justice Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz

Program Sponsors

University of California Berkeley Sociology

University of California Los Angeles Center for Comparative Social Theory

University of California Santa Cruz Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies

University of California Santa Cruz Community Studies

University of California Santa Cruz Sociology

Map and directions