Abstract
This text explores two proposals of theorization of contemporary social change and the tendencies they devise as harboured in social development in an emancipatory direction within the framework of a renewed critical theory. Marxist views of such processes are initially discussed, followed by that of Antonio Negri's and Boaventura de Sousa Santos' works. Despite their complexity, flaws and mistakes are found in them both, which must be overcome. The immediacy of the 'multitude' and the reification of difference are rejected. It argues then that it remains necessary to identify the developmental tendencies of modernity, especially of its political system, with its fault lines and possible alteration, with on the other hand a more modest and prudent attitude towards the identification of totality and the strategies supposed to be directly and absolutely derivable from it.
Keywords:
Developmental trends; Communism; Marxism; Negri; Sousa Santos