The Potential of a Critical Cartography Based on Immanent Critique

This paper argues for the potential of a critical cartography based on immanent critique – or more precisely, a practice for educational contexts that fosters reflexive map-reading based on immanent critique. It starts with a discussion of contrasting approaches based on discourse analysis and immanent critique. This provides first insights into how one can overcome problems based on discourse analytical framings by using an approach rooted in immanent critique. At the same time, it shows how immanent critique can nevertheless benefit from discourse analysis. This interplay fosters a particular practice of reflexive map-reading that offers the potential to foster ‘maturity’ (‘Mündigkeit’) (Adorno & Becker, 1971) and the ‘political subject’ (Mitchell, 2018; Mitchell & Elwood, 2013) in educational contexts.