Marxism

Question 1

Why Marxian theory?

Answer 1

Robert Cox:
Distinction of Problem Solving Theory and Critical Theory
Problem Solving focuses on correcting certain dysfunctions (specific problems)
Critical Theory Questions the structural conditions taken for granted

It historicizes (Kees Van der Pijl: Seeing Time), it contextualizes (David Harvey: disjunctures of financial flow and political power and control- Space)

Question 2

Think Process; Think Practice; Think People A ruthless critique of everything existing - Karl Marx

Answer 2

Ruthless in 2 ways:
1) Not afraid of its own conclusions
2) Not afraid to conflict with powers that be

Must not be dogmatic, but must make politics and religion the objects of criticism

Question 3

Humanist tradition is concerned with…

Answer 3

• alienation, exploitation, emancipation, social forces that constrain

Question 4

Historical Materialism & Criticisms

Answer 4

Primitive accumulations -> ancient accumulation -> feudalism -> capitalism -> communism

Criticisms: technologically deterministic, temporally linear, suggests abrupt breaks rather than gradual transformations, lacks social forces

Question 5

Dialectical Synthesis

Answer 5

Thesis (thing) + antithesis (not thing) ->synthesis (aufhebung)

Social relations - SR (organizations of society) + Forces of Production - FoP (Technology & Technical Knowledge-> Mode of Production (MoP)

SR = mode of surplus labour appropriation
FoP= mode of distribution of surplus labour
MoP= form of raw material appropriation and use in labour process

Question 6

Dialectical Synthesis II

Answer 6

SR+FoP ->MoP +SR -> FoP +MoP -> SR +FoP -> MoP

Question 7

3 Laws of Dialectical Materialism

Answer 7

1. Unity & Conflict of Opposites: Change is the result of Internal Contradictions
2. Transition of Quality & Quantity: Changes in Quantity results in the change of Quality
3. The Negation of Negations: Each stage of development is the negation of the previous form, and will in turn be negated by the next development

Question 8

Scientific v. Critical Theories

Answer 8

Scientific theory is objectifying & instrumental, the object remains external, to the theory

Critical theory is self-reflective, self-conscious, self-critical and non objectifying, seeks to explain power structures that inhibit social actors’ abilities

Question 9

Capitalism as Negation of Feudalism

Answer 9

End of Feudalism
- move away from use value toward exchange value
- move away from rents in kind and labour service to money or wage
- move away from personal obligations & relations to institutionalized and structured ones

Question 10

Two New Logics of Surpluses:

Answer 10

• Surplus value as profit
• return of private property as exclusive use rights; creation of capital, new modes of exploitation

Surplus value generated in asymmetrical labour contract for wage, labour contract based on social reproduction of labour

Question 11

3 Steps in the Rise of Capitalism

Answer 11

Creation of Land Market through Exclusive Private Property Significance: Capital as Exploitative Property

Creation of Labour Market through end of Serfdom and Slavery Significance: Wage Labour

Creation of Consumer Market through Money Rents Significance: End of Rent in Kind or Labour, Must Wage Labour

Question 12

Four Alienations:

Answer 12

1.) Alienation from the Produce of Human Labour: from Objects of Labour.

2.) Alienation from Process of Labour: from Human Self.

3.) Alienation from Our Species Being: from Each Other as Humans.

4.) Alienation of Humans from Nature, from the world.

• Karl Marx 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts

Question 13

Reification as the Commodifications of Consciousness

Answer 13

Four Dynamics of High Capitalism:
1.) Other-ness and difference are omni-present
(race, gender, religion, sexuality in historical materialism)
2.) Images & Discourses are commodified
3.) Time and Space shape modes of oppression
4.) Historical Geographical Materialism as open-ended
(it is dialectical, but not fixed, not deterministic) - - Important for David Harvey

Question 14

Systems of Exploitation: Bourgeoisie/Proletariat in Wage Contract Spatial Exploitation? Rich/Poor, Urban/Rural, Metropole/Colony

Answer 14

Capital as Exploitation of Surplus:
• Surplus in Asymmetrical labour exchange
• Surplus in Extraction
• Surplus in Domination

Question 15

Classical Definition of Capital:

Answer 15

• used in the production of other goods.
• was itself produced
• is not immediately exhausted in the process of production

Question 16

New consideration of Fictive of Fictitious Capital

Answer 16

• Capitalisation of owned property
• Traded claims to paper (accounted) wealth
• Capitalisation of potential stock/market returns
• Decoupling of capital value from material wealth

Question 17

Class, Status Groups and Hegemony

Answer 17

Class as bodies with shared interests, often thought as shared economic or material interests. But class can be
expressed as practice or status outside of materiality. Hegemony is class relationship, where one class becomes
so dominant that its interests are normalised through institutions and cultural practices.

Question 18

Bourdieu: Physical

Answer 18

Deliberate action that impairs the victims physical
integrity, and also the mental harms of threat to
commit such acts, or coercion to force another to engage in such acts. This also includes sexual violence
or the threat of sexual violence, by or against either gender.

Question 19

Bourdieu: Structural

Answer 19

Social institutions or social structures cause harm. Often this is a result of uneven distribution of resources or unequal access to services. Systemic
exclusions - such sa racism, sexism, ageism or ethic chauvinism - are examples of structural violence.
Communities that live in poverty because only certain kinds of employment are available to people of a
particular race or nationality, such as under Apertheid ni South Africa, suffer from structural violence.

Question 20

Bourdieu: Symbolic

Answer 20

Unnoticed, perhaps even unconscious, domination
that si maintained through
every-day habits. This si often not regonised as violence. Gender domination
or racism are two areas of symbolic violence.

Question 21

Counter Hegemony: War of Position

Answer 21

Use of Persuasion or Propaganda to increase the numbers of political actors who oppose or see alternatives to the hegemonic position or discourse

Question 22

Counter Hegemony: War of Movement

Answer 22

Counter-hegemonic elements are sufficiently strong to directly challenge the position of the historic bloc, either through force, violence, or system overthrow, such that the counter-hegemonic elements may themselves become the new historic bloc.

Question 23

Benefits of Core Exploitation of Periphery

Answer 23

• Access to a large quantity of raw material
• Enormous profits from direct capital investments
• Amarket for exports
• Cheap labor
• Inexpensive Skilled &Professional labor through migration of people from the non-core to the core.

Question 24

Core Dominance

Answer 24

• Productivity Dominance
• Financial Dominance
• Trade Dominance
• Military Dominance?

Question 25

WS Critiques Modernization Theory

Answer 25

Focuses on nation-state as unit (peripheries in core economies?)
• Suggests only uni-directional trajectory (sector collapse)
• Ignores culturally local specificity
&the possibility of multiple modernities

Silk Road as World System