Any attempt to reinvigorate critical theory must revisit the claim that the critique of knowledge is social critique and vice versa. This book does so by exploring the relations between dialectics, mediation, stratification and differentiation today. It is shown that attempts to address issues arising from persistent stratification that do not take functional differentiation into account are likely to offer quantitative solutions to problems that have become qualitative to a significant extent. The book demonstrates that although qualitative reform becomes possible with increased complexity and refined collective learning, it will not arise in the form of automatic systemic adjustment or spontaneous social evolution. New, more flexible mediations will depend on the institutionalisation of decentred, rather than simply privatised decisionmaking processes.