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These words, written by Albie Sachs during the transition period in the early 1990s in South Africa, captures something of the central concerns of this paper: the force and possibility of criticism which, while exceeding all boundaries (in making reference to a "freedom" which we all recognize without difficulty), nevertheless tends to be deeply embedded in specific historical locations (the freedom to which he refers takes its force from its opposition to apartheid and hence is not just any or even a generalized conception of freedom). This concern resonates with a central issue addressed in this volume, namely, the very possibility of social criticism. That, I read as a genealogical question, a question for us, which arises, not just under any circumstances, but under very specific conditions. The specificity of our context may be characterized variously, but one of its important features could be argued to be the fact that we are living in a world in which the implications of deconstructive interventions and poststructuralist "critique" are increasingly being worked through in a systematic fashion (in different disciplines and for different areas of life), their novelty having worn off to some degree. It is no longer possible to argue that "deconstruction" in and of itself implies "criticism", not to speak of 'social criticism".

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-27445-1_5

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