Abstract
Over its century-long history, Critical Theory, initially associated with the Frankfurt School and latter developed to a broad theoretical perspective, has given pride of place to labor studies, either through conceptual reflections on the category of work or through historical-diagnostic analyses about changes in the reality of labor activities. Thus, sometimes more closely, sometimes more tensely, Critical Theory sought to connect a normative dimension of the general human activity of work with research into the intersubjective and moral dimensions of the relationships involved in the labor market. In this article, we present an overview of the trajectory within Critical Theory of the concept of labor and the analysis of the capitalist market. To do that, we take as our departing point the articles that build up this dossier “Critical Theory and sociology of work and of the market”, presented in the following pages. Besides briefly commenting the individual contributions to the dossier, we indicate their connections with the most recent attempt to discuss the matter within Critical Theory, namely Axel Honneth’s 2023 book, Der arbeitende Souverän.
Keywords
Critical Theory; work; labor market