theory and methods - marxism Flashcards
What idea does marxism reject?
that society is based on consensus
What is meant by the economic base?
- the means of production
- the relations of production
What is meant by the superstructure?
- social institutions e.g. family, education, media and religion
What role does the superstructure play?
- passes on the dominant ideology, controlling the proletariat and makes them accept their situation as normal, false consciousness
What is the aim of the revolution?
- people will develop class consciousness
- the means of production will then be put in control of the state (communism)
What is meant by commodity fetishism?
- the habit of imagining commodities as having human or even superhuman qualities
- we fetishise commodities by identifying ourselves with the things we own
What are the phases of Marx’s writings?
- humanism
- economics, politics and history
What is meant by humanism?
- all value is placed on humans
What are some strengths of marxism?
- explains the inequality in society
- points out the power of ideology in society
- explores society as a whole
- encourages us to look at the economic underpinnings in society
- highly influential
What are some weaknesses of marxism?
- class structure is more complex than bourgeoisie and proletariat
- capitalism is less exploitative today
- many institutions today have at least relative autonomy from bourgeosie control
- communist revolutions in Eastern Europe didn’t lead to greater equality
How would postmodernists critique marxism?
- culture exists independently of bourgeois control and is used by people for a variety of different purposes - what we really have is free individuals who see class as irrelevant and don’t feel exploited
- we pick and mix and construct our own identities
How would functionalists critique marxism?
- it over emphasises the conflict in society and revolutionary change hasn’t happened
What is neo-marxism?
a critical theory that explains some areas that traditional marxism doesn’t
What are the two different branches of neo-marxism?
- humanistic
- structural
What branch of neo-marxism does Gramsci’s theory fall under?
humanistic
What does Gramsci argue?
- people’s ideas underpin their actions - they have relative autonomy from the economic base
- introduced the concept of hegemony - placing more emphasis on the role of ideology rather than just economy in maintaining ruling class ideology
What branch of neo-marxism does Althusser’s theory fall under?
structural
What does Althusser argue?
- structures determine the course of history and individuals are passive puppets, victims of ideology and manipulated by forces beyond their control
What two apparatuses did Althusser describe?
- ideological state apparatus
- repressive state apparatus
What is meant by the ideological state apparatus?
- agencies that spread the ruling class ideology e.g. family, education, media
What is meant by the repressive state apparatus?
- parts of the state which are used to keep the population in line
How do Althusser and Gramsci differ in their predictions on how socialism will come about?
Althusser = when the conditions of capitalism ultimately bring about the system’s inevitable collapse
Gramsci = when people become conscious of the need to overthrow capitalism
What is Phil Cohen’s neo-marxist subcultural theory?
- youth culture = WC resistance to capitalist ideology + an active way to rebel against the society that exploits them e.g. Mods, Skinheads
- they use style to make themselves feel better; despite it not solving their problems
- they subconsciously reject capitalism through style
- they youth are more able to resist ads they aren’t fully intergrated into capitalist society
What are some criticisms of neo-marxism?
- Gramsci underplys the role of the economy and Marx did talk about ideology
- doesn’t understand the importance of material factors e.g. fear of poverty, unemployment and state repression in preventing revolution
