Today, Critical Theory is no longer tied to a specific place in the world. Rather, genuine developments of Critical Theories can be observed in many academic contexts around the world. The contributions collected in this book show that the various projects of Critical Theory have not always and not exclusively emerged from the reception of the so-called Frankfurt School, but that the successful global expansion of capitalist modernity has triggered developments of Critical Theories in many parts of the world as an appropriate academic and intellectual endeavor of critique.

Whether or not the tradition of the Frankfurt School is followed, Critical Theories are always about an undogmatic reading of Marxist theory, the critique of global capitalist modernity, the question of how this critique should be normatively grounded and how different academic disciplines should complement each other in a common endeavor of critical social and cultural research. The book provides an overview of debates and variants of critical theories in selected countries.