Between Creation and Destruction? Social Theory Now

First Annual Conference of the Center for Social Theory (June 11-12, 2026)

 

Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of "creative destruction" for a time became virtually synonymous with efforts to address the contradictions and paradoxes inherent to modern societies as they manifested in “globalization”. Adorno’s negative dialectic and Fromm’s concern with human destructiveness, along with an array of parallel and complementary warnings about the gap separating the world we would prefer to see and the world as it really is, also continue to be useful reference points for examining the direction of social change. Social theorists should hone rigorous concern with the uniqueness and fragility of modern conditions and keep track of developments that call for comprehensive reevaluations, along with reconsiderations of the tools used to do so. The purpose of this conference is to illuminate the tensions between established research questions and projects in the context of specific disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, on the one hand, and questions, working assumptions, and research agendas that ought to inform and orient the distinctive as well as interdisciplinary efforts of theorists, as far as time, energy, and resources dedicated to inquiry are concerned, and the responsibilities that are specific to theoretical work.