Marxist Class Theory For A Skeptical World

Marxist Theory of Class for a Skeptical World is a critique of Analytical Marxist and Post-structuralist Marxist theories of class, and offers an alternative approach rooted in the ideas of Marx and Engels, as well as Lenin and Trotsky.

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: 80%=good, University of Kerala (Department of Political Science), course: Comparative Politics, language: English, abstract: Ever since the early beginnings of human civilization there has been the startling question of what constitutes and determines one’s social relations. Is the character of society as a whole shaped by the social forces existent in it or is the social differentiation a product of a particular political or cultural system? While apparently even the most ancient societies exhibited a clear distinction between those who exercised power and those who did not it has been left to numerous philosophers to provide sufficient and satisfying answers to the questions of where this distinction originates from and how, if at all, it can be justified. Once the first claim to property had been made both the claim and the property had to be defended and justified and thus the foundations for society’s political, legal and maybe even cultural institutions were laid. Logically, these were to a large extent shaped by the interests of those possessing property. It is on these assumptions that modern class theory is built. Although the idea of economic determinism, i.e. the belief that the entire life is dependent on one’s economic situation, had been present long before it was Karl Marx who was the first to develop a comprehensive framework around this idea. This paper attempts to outline the important features of Marxian class theory and to introduce some of the developments which took place in its tradition.

Chapter 1 Introduction: U.S. Sociology, the American Dream, and the Specter of Karl Marx Part 2 Part I: Social Structure and Processes Chapter 3 Class Structure: Class, Not Strata: It's Not Just Where You Stand, But What You Stand For Chapter 4 Social Movements: An Argument for Understanding Social Movements as Class Movements Chapter 5 Gender: Marxist Theory and the Oppression of Women Chapter 6 Race: Classical and Recent Theoretical Developments in the Marxist Analysis of Race and Ethnicity Chapter 7 Social Change and Development: "A World After Its Own Image" The Marxist Paradigm and Theories of Capitalist Development on a World Scale Chapter 8 Labor: Labor's Crisis and the Crisis of Labor Studies: Toward a Retheorized Sociology of Labor Chapter 9 State and Politics: From the King of Prussia to the New World Order: Marxist Theories of State and Power Chapter 10 Corporations and the Economy: Marxist Scholarship and the Corporate Economy Chapter 11 Education and Knowledge: Reading Class: Marxist Theories of Education Chapter 12 Medicine and Public Health: The Study of the Health Care System: The Marxist Critique of a Dominant Paradigm Chapter 13 Religion: Marxist-Christian Dialogues: The Liberation of Theology Chapter 14 Crime and Law: Rediscovering Criminology: Lessons from the Marxist Tradition Chapter 15 Urban and Regional Development: Views of the City: Urban and Regional Sociology

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Marxism and Phenomenology: The Dialectical Horizons of Critique, edited by Bryan Smyth and Richard Westerman, offers new perspectives on the possibility of a philosophical outlook that combines Marxism and phenomenology in the critique of capitalism. Although Marxism’s focus on impersonal social structures and phenomenology’s concern with lived experience can make these traditions appear conceptually incompatible, the potential critical force of a theoretical reconciliation inspired several attempts in the twentieth century to articulate a phenomenological Marxism. Updating and extending this approach, the contributors to this volume identify and develop new and previously overlooked connections between the traditions, offering new perspectives on Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger; exploring themes such as alienation, reification, and ecology; and examining the intersection of Marxism and phenomenology in figures such as Michel Henry, Walter Benjamin, and Frantz Fanon. These glimpses of a productive reconciliation of the respective strengths of phenomenology and Marxism offer promising possibilities for illuminating and resolving the increasingly intense social crises of capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State examines the capitalist state in the abstract, and as it exists in advanced capitalism and peripheral capitalism, illustrating the ideas with evidence from the North and the South. The volume unpacks the capitalist state’s functions in relation to commodity relations, private property, and the crisis-ridden production of (surplus) value as a part of the capital circuit (M-C-M′). It also examines state’s political and geographical forms. It argues that no matter how autonomous it is, the state cannot meet the pressing needs of the masses significantly and sustainably. This is not because of so-called capitalist constraints, but because the state is inherently capitalist. Each chapter begins with Capital volume 1. And each chapter ends with theoretical/practical implications of the ideas which taken together counter existing state theory’s focus on state autonomy and reforms and point to the necessity for the masses to establish a new transitional democratic state. But the book goes ‘beyond’ Marx too, as it deploys the combined Marxism of 19th and 20th centuries. Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State will interest scholars researching state-society/economy relations. It is suitable for university students as well as established scholars in sociology, political science, heterodox economics, human geography, and international development.

In Marx Matters noted scholars explore the way a Marxian political economy addresses contemporary social problems, demonstrating the relevance of Marx today and outlining how his work can frame progressive programs for social change.

This book, first published in 1986, presents a radical challenge to socialist orthodoxy, subjecting a key component of that orthodoxy – Marxism – to sustained criticism. Les Johnston argues that Marxism cannot provide the foundations for a rigorous socialist theory or an effective socialist politics. A fundamental element of this criticism is the suggestion that the problem of ‘reductionism’ which has preoccupied Marxists is a red herring. Marxism’s problem is not its reductionism but its theoretical incoherence. Marxism is not ‘deterministic’, for there is invariably an indeterminate relationship between the materialism it invokes and the forms of politics it adopts. However, materialism is an obstacle to socialist theory. The contradictions and failures of Marxist class analysis suggest that the class concept is inadequate to the demands that socialists continue to place on it. It is not merely class which is problematic, however, but the conception of political interests which is associated with it. Even recent Marxist ‘revisionists’ who dispense with class primacy are unwilling to come to terms with the question of how socialist political interests are constituted. Socialist theory has to recognise the varied forces and interests on ‘the left’, and an effective socialism will have to be a pluralistic one. This means there can be no general theory of socialism, since a pluralistic socialism has to be able to adjust to varying social conditions.