Normative Frames and Systemic Imperatives: Gouldner, Szelényi and New Class Fracture

December 19, 2019

In January 2020, Michael Kennedy published, "Normative Frames and Systemic Imperatives: Gouldner, Szelényi and New Class Fracture", a commentary on the work of Iván Szelényi (Yale University and Central European University) -  in Tamás Demeter (eds.), Intellectuals, Inequalities and Transitions: Prospects for a Critical Sociology. 

The piece identifies the class distinctions of intellectuals, as well as identifying the systemic and cultural foundations of their coherence through communist rule and its aftermath. Kennedy elaborates on the ways in which Iván Szelényi has moved his own thinking about intellectuals and their culture and class - delving into both the crisis and opportunity for intellectuality around the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.