Critical Freedoms

The articles in this volume take as their object the concept of freedom broadly – and of freedom of expression in particular – and view them through the lens of insights from modern critical theory and the continental philosophical tradition. Some articles revisit works of key theorists to shine fresh light on their conceptual understanding of “freedom”, examining how they articulate it and how they arrived at it in genealogical terms. Others link concepts and ideas from critical theory to live contemporary debates, such as those concerning online freedom, campus no-platforming, and so-called “cancel culture”, and use the tools of critical theory to nuance discourse surrounding these often sensationalized and polarizing topics. A critical awareness of how power operates in the deployment of the language of freedom – who is allowed to align themselves with that virtue along sexed, gendered, racialized, and class lines – permeates the articles.