Nancy Fraser's Zeitdiagnose: Capitalism after the Financial Crisis

In recent years, amid financial crises and disaffection around the world, several prominent theorists and philosophers have been revisiting the Frankfurt School critical theory tradition. Nancy Fraser’s work has been among the most incisive of this recent uptick in crisis-theoretical research. Fraser has increasingly insisted on keeping capitalism at the center of critical theory. A stimulating workshop with Fraser organized by the Max Weber Kolleg (Urs Lindner) and the Faculty of Law, Social Sciences and Economics (Stefanie Hammer) at the University of Erfurt proved she will not be diverted from that key task: the critique of capitalism. Even so, Fraser’s insistence does not come at the expense of her synthetic reading – and her earlier writing – around many other topics, nor does it lay her open to the bogeyman of ‘economism’.