• The Dialectic of Control
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The Dialectic of Control

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What drives social change - and how does control persist? This book offers a bold and original framework for understanding how domination and autonomy constantly shift within our relationships, ins...
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  • 25 August 2026
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What drives social change - and how does control persist?

This book offers a bold and original framework for understanding how domination and autonomy constantly shift within our relationships, institutions and political systems. Drawing on both classical and contemporary theory, Browne traces how struggles against injustice generate change—while also giving rise to new forms of control.

From the workplace to the state, this book explores how power is negotiated, resisted and reasserted. Setting out an innovative agenda for critical social theory, it reveals how the push for greater autonomy drives both social conflict and institutional transformation.

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Price: $119.95
Pages: 256
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Publication Date: 25 August 2026
ISBN: 9781529230185
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Social Theory, Social theory, PHILOSOPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Capitalism, Political science and theory, Right-of-centre democratic ideologies and movements, Capitalism, Social and political philosophy, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology
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'This work showcases Craig Browne’s impressive mastery of critical social theory, offering a complex and thought-provoking contribution to the field. With this contribution, Browne firmly establishes himself as a leading voice in the discipline.' Benno Herzog, University of Valencia
Craig Browne is Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney.

Part I: Sketch of a Synthetic Social Theory

1. Introduction

2. Outline of a New Critical Model

Part II: From Hegel’s Dialectic to Critical Social Theory

3. Hegel’s Philosophical Origination

4. Marx’s Antinomian Project

5. The Struggle for Recognition and the Dialectic of Control

Part III: The Rationalization of Control

6. A Historical Ontology of Control

7. The Reorganization of Social Relations, Institutions and Subjectivity

Part IV: Modernity as a Constellation of Social Conflict

8. The Constituting of Modernity

9. Projects and Crises: Tensions, Antagonisms and Contradictions

Part V: Conclusion to a Sketch for a Critical Theory of Society

10. Conclusion