Challenging critique On the concept of criticism in the social and cultural sciences

Both the concept of criticism (critique) and the practice of criticizing are ubiquitous. This is due to the fact that criticism is part of the fundamental traits of humans: where there is feeling, thought, and action, criticism is never far. In enlightened societies, or those claiming to be, critique is a self-advocating concept. This is especially true for academia, where criticism is considered an essential driver of knowledge production. But precisely in view of its omnipresence and ascribed virtue, a clarification of the concept is warranted. For not everything that claims to be critique should be considered such, and critique quite often does not attain the quality that would justify it. This contribution is therefore intended as a preparatory study for the special issue's topic of critique in/of communication studies and sheds light on the development of critique in terms of the history of ideas, in society and scholarship. Selected concepts of critique as well as classical debates concerning its function and role, especially in the social and cultural sciences, are discussed. The article concludes with a proposal for evaluative criteria of productive critique.