Marxist Research

  MarxismKarl 
Marx and Friedrich Engels
historical materialism
base/superstructure
teleology (teleological)
mode of production
dialectic
alienation
ideology"false consciousness"
Louis Althusser
overdetermination
decentring
interpellated
ideological 
state apparatus
Antonio Gramsci
hegemony
historic bloc
Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse
instrumental reason
repressive tolerance
David Harvey
gentrification
distantiation
Manuel Castells
spatiality
collective consumptionruptual unity
Manfredo Tafuri


Summary of Marxism


1. Marxism is a body of philosophical, economic and social beliefs about human nature and society, as well as a political movement based upon those beliefs.

2. Marxism is best understood not as a single set of ideas, but as a debate conducted for more than a century around the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

3. Marxism is a determinist theory of society that stresses the centrality of human productive activity in the organization of all aspects of social life.

4. Its central concern is the relationship between human consciousness and the "material life" created by the necessary activity of production.

5. In emphasizing the economic foundation of society, Marxism is opposed to other theories which claim that ideas are the fundamental basis of social reality.

6. Marxists study "objective" social relations and class interests rather than the thoughts, feelings and motivations of specific individuals.

7. The aim of a Marxist analysis is to expose the social relations underlying the inequality that characterizes the capitalist system. 
Session