How Critical Theory Fundamentally Challenges Traditional Inquiry in Social Science

Abstract

Academia faces a challenge, as activism replaces inquiry as the primary goal of the university. In particular, the growing dominance of activist academics, who explicitly reject objective inquiry, has started and will continue to constrain what information researchers can report and what ideas they can explore. We provide a formal framework to think about these constraints and seek to provide guidance for how researchers may be able to continue to operate productively in this environment.

Keywords: critical theory, academic inquiry, free speech