zombie category

is a traditional social science concept which in inadequate to the task of grasping in the rapidly changing empirical condition of globalizing modernity.

the failure of social science concepts to grasp a quickly changing world. 'Ulrich Beck coined the wonderfully evocative phrase 'zombie categories' to describe the growing inadequacy of normal social science concepts in grasping the rapidly changing empirical condition of globalizing modernity. Citing Kant's dictum, 'Concepts without observations are empty, observations without concepts are blind', Beck writes '[N]ormal social science categories are becoming zombie categories, empty terms in the Kantian meaning. Zombie categories are living dead categories, which blind the social sciences to the rapidly changing realities inside the nation-state containers and outside as well' (Beck 2000b: 5).

zombie category, n.All

zombie category