Classical Social Theory
This theorist said “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,” emphasizing bourgeoisie vs. proletariat.
Who is Karl Marx?
In a market society, labor, land, and money are treated as if they were produced just to be sold, even though they aren’t - Polanyi calls these this.
What are fictitious commodities?
According to Freud, this part of the mind is associated with unconscious urges and desires.
What is the id?
This is a form of information that is factually incorrect but not purposefully intended to harm or alter perception.
What is misinformation?
The uncertain “in‑between” zones—like an empty school hallway at night, an airport at 3 a.m., or even the Covid‑19 pandemic—where you’ve left one situation but haven’t fully entered the next. Anthropologists and social theorists call such in‑between states this.
What are liminal spaces?
This concept describes a breakdown of norms and regulation during periods of rapid social change.
What is anomie?
This city in South Korea sought urban and economic planning advice from geographer and social theorist David Harvey.
What is Sejong City?
This condition/term describes when "humans feel disconnected or estranged from some part of their nature or from society."
What is alienation?
When a student chooses an “impractical” major (like philosophy or art) against economic pressure to pick a high-salary STEM field, they might be pushing back against this purely means-ends view of reason critiqued by Horkheimer.
What is instrumental (subjective) reason?
On 11/11, stores market Pepero Day as if buying the right snack for your crush expresses your unique personality - even though millions of people follow the same script. Horkheimer and Adorno would see this as the culture industry producing this illusion of individuality.
What is pseudo-individuality?
The "thingification" of an abstract concept or idea.
What is reification?
Many young adults patch together multiple part-time jobs - delivery, cafe work, private tutoring - never sure how many hours or how much income they’ll have next month. This term describes such unstable, insecure forms of employment common under contemporary capitalism.
What is precarious labor (precarity)?
In editing a short Kakao message (ex: deleting a line that felt “try‑hard,” adding a polite emoji, imagining specific classmates reading it), Goffman would say you’re engaged in this everyday process of shaping what others think of you.
What is impression management?
K-pop idols undergo relentless training, hierarchical control, and constant surveillance to produce “docile bodies for consumption,” shaping performers, fans, and society at large – these conditions might belong to this stage in the historical development of power according to Foucault.
What is biopower?
Possati uses this term to describe how AI systems embody hidden drives, biases, and structures that humans and the AI itself can’t easily perceive, even though these systems shape decisions about jobs, loans, or school admissions. It is a veritable black box unknown to the system itself.
What is the algorithmic unconscious?
He argued that capitalism grew out of a specific religious denomination's concepts of predestination and disciplined labor as a “sign” of salvation.
Who is Max Weber?
In our discussion of NFT and AI art, we imagined someone paying a huge sum for a “unique” token tied to a digital image that anyone can screenshot. When buyers act as if the token or image itself has a mysterious, almost magical power over people, we can use this Marxian idea to describe it.
What is commodity fetishism?
This is the part of dramaturgical theory that describes when individuals drop their performance and reveal their “authentic” selves when alone. However, it is also where preparation occurs for the next interaction.
What is the backstage?
Ricoeur says that in narrative, we weave events into a meaningful plot that links beginning, middle, and end - turning scattered incidents into a story. This act of “plot-making” is called this.
What is emplotment
Rem Koolhaas uses this term for the endless, air‑conditioned “non‑places” of malls, airports, and mega‑developments - full of escalators and signage but with no clear center, history, or boundaries.
What is junkspace?
He provided a newed rigor to the concept of base and superstructure in his analysis of hegemony.
Who is Antonio Gramsci?
Around the world, people protest when housing, health care, or education are fully handed over to the market, demanding rent caps, public clinics, or tuition support. Polanyi would say this pushback against runaway marketization is one side of a broader process in which society tries to protect itself from the market.
What is double movement?
An infant seeing its reflection, or a teenager obsessively editing a selfie until it shows a perfect, unified “me,” illustrates Lacan’s idea that we identify with an image that feels more coherent than we do inside. He calls this developmental moment this.
What is the mirror stage?
Students behave differently in an exam hall with cameras and proctors watching from the back, even if no one actually reviews every moment of footage. Foucault used Bentham’s prison design to name this kind of self‑disciplining visibility.
What is panopticism?
Forms of online manipulation – e.g., roach motels, hidden costs, confirm-shaming, disguised ads, etc. – are referred to as this.
What are dark patterns?