Revisiting the Frankfurt School : Essays on Culture, Media and Theory

This book expands our understanding by addressing the writings of intellectuals who were either members of the Frankfurt School, or were closely associated with it, but often neglected. It thus brings together the latest research of an international team of experts, offering a critical reassessment of the contributions of the Frankfurt School and its associates to cultural, media and communication studies, as well as to our modern understanding of new media technology and debate within the public sphere.

What has become known as the Frankfurt School is often reduced to a small number of theorists in media communication and cultural studies. Challenging this limitation, Revisiting The Frankfurt School introduces a wider theoretical perspective by introducing critical assessments on a number of writers associated with the school that have been mostly marginalized from debate. This book therefore expands our understanding by addressing the writings of intellectuals who were either members of the school, or were closely associated with it, but often neglected. It thus brings together the latest research of an international team of experts to examine the work of figures such as the social psychologist Erich Fromm, the philosophy of Siegfried Kracauer, the writer on media and communication Leo Lowenthal, introducing Hans Magnus Enzenberger to the debate, whilst also shedding new light on the work of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin and Jürgen Habermas. A critical reassessment of the contributions of the Frankfurt School and its associates to cultural, media and communication studies, as well as to our modern understanding of new media technology and debate within the public sphere, this book will appeal to those with interests in sociology, philosophy, social psychology, social theory, media and communication, and cultural studies.