On Rationality
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918771455 |
| Date | 01 November 2018 |
| Author | James Craske,Janis Loschmann |
| Published date | 01 November 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Political Studies Review
2018, Vol. 16(4) 306 –317
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929918771455
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929918771455
Political Studies Review
2018, Vol. 16(4) 306 –317
© The Author(s) 2018
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1478929918771455
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
On Rationality
James Craske1 and Janis Loschmann2
Abstract
Rationality is an enduring topic of interest across the disciplines and has become even more so,
given the current crises that are unfolding in our society. The four books reviewed here, which
are written by academics working in economics, political science, political theory and philosophy,
provide an interdisciplinary engagement with the idea of rationality and the way it has shaped the
institutional frameworks and global political economy of our time. Rational choice theory has
certainly proved to be a useful analytic tool in certain contexts, and instrumental reason has been
a key tenet of human progress in several periods of history, including the industrial revolution
and the modernity that emerged in the nineteenth century. Given the complexity of our current
challenges, however, is it time to ask whether this paradigm might be better complemented by
more holistic and heterodox approaches?
Hindmoor A and Taylor TY (2015) Rational Choice (Political Analysis), 2nd edn. London; New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Massumi (2015) The Power at the End of the Economy. Durham: Duke University Press.
Brown (2015) Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. New York: Zone Books.
Ludovisi SG (ed.) (2015) Critical Theory and the Challenge of Praxis: Beyond Reification. Farnham;
Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Keywords
rationality, rational choice, affect, praxis, neoliberalism
Accepted: 21 March 2018
Introduction
How we choose to read and respond to the big problems of our times such as the crash of
financial markets or environmental destruction poignantly reveals our priorities and the
values which we want society to be most characterised by. Rationality has been instru-
mental in policy design, from the target culture introduced in the public sector to maxim-
ise efficiency, to the way in which we conceptualise individual freedom, and the rise of
certain political ideologies that emphasise technocratic and allegedly value neutral forms
of governance based on data collection, feedback loops and algorithmic evaluation: an
ideology Evgeny Morozov has dubbed ‘solutionism’ (Morozov, 2013).
1School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
2School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Corresponding author:
James Craske, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Email: j.craske@uea.ac.uk
771455PSW0010.1177/1478929918771455Political Studies ReviewCraske and Loschmann
research-article2018
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