Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations
This series is dedicated to the memory of Professor David R. Dickens, who was a founding co-editor.

This series focuses on the contemporary significance of the work of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. While almost one hundred years have passed since it was first established, the work of the members of the Frankfurt School is today highly relevant for the analysis and understanding of a broad range of contemporary issues. Just as in the period when the original members of the Frankfurt school were conducting their work, we now face a series of complex challenges due to the number of large-scale historical changes. Many of these are the result of new technologies that, rather than leading to emancipation, have resulted in new forms of domination and divisiveness.

All around the globe we are witnessing a new round of war and conflict, the rise of fascism, and impending environmental catastrophe. We also see the heightening of interpersonal conflicts based on racial and ethnic, sexual, regional, and ideological differences. The very technologies that promised to bring us all together have only amplified and monetized these divisions through the use of bots, algorithms, and other sophisticated digital tools. To make matters worse, we see a rise in extremist conspiracy theories, pseudoscientific propaganda, and other forms of misinformation and disinformation that only make matters worse.

The books published in the series will address this broad range of concern by employing and updating the work of the Frankfurt School. In so doing we hope to produce a body of work that makes both a theoretical and substantive contribution to the analysis of contemporary social life. We thus invite submissions from those who exemplify Marx’s observation that, “the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however is to change it.” Moreover, because of the complexity of issues that we face, we welcome approaches that combine other frameworks with the Frankfurt School to create a more robust understanding of the social world.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Social Media and Everyday Life
• Rising Authoritarianism
• “Fake” and “Alternative” News
• Conspiracy Theories
• Harm to Racial & Sexual Minorities
• Anti-Scientific Sentiment
• Environmental Collapse
• Extremist Groups
• Satanic Panics and Superstion
• Critical Algorithms
• Doxxing and Trolling
• Culture Wars
• Misinformation
• Disinformation
• Reactionary Politics
• Instrumental Reason
• Social Media Influencers
• Live Streaming
• Crypto Currency
• The Meta-Verse
• The Experience Industry


Editor(s): Christopher T. Conner (ctckdg@missouri.edu) with Angelique Dickens
Staff editorial contact: Courtney Morales (Courtney.Morales@bloomsbury.com)