DOCSLIB.ORG

Sociology 929 Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sociology 929 Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis Sociology 929 Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis Fall Semester, 2006 Professor Erik Olin Wright If “Class” is the answer, what is the question? The concept of class is one of the most contested concepts within sociology. Sometimes this is just a question of how the word class is being used, but behind the alternative uses of the term there often lurks deeper theoretical disagreements about how best to understand the nature and consequences of economic inequality in contemporary societies. This seminar will explore in a systematic and rigorous manner the full range of alternative conceptualizations of class. The focus will be on contemporary approaches, although there will be some attention to classic statements. The course will give students an opportunity both to gain a deeper understanding of the substantive issues around the analysis of class, but also to engage in a very fine-grained manner the problem of carefully defining concepts. Sociologists often take a quite casual attitude towards the problem of concept-formation. While they may worry quite a bit about the theoretical arguments that link concepts together, much less attention is frequently paid to the underlying logic of the abstract definitions of the concepts themselves. Sociology 929. Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis 2 WRITING REQUIREMENTS There are two categories of written requirements for the seminar: 1. Weekly reading interrogations I strongly believe that writing is central to reading and that students should be in the habit of writing memos interrogating anything they read. These should not be standard “reading notes” summarizing main points in an argument, although summaries may be part of such notes. Rather they should be conversations with the readings in which issues are raised, arguments analyzed, problems discussed. These interrogations will form a substantial basis for the seminar discussions so it is worth taking the task seriously. I have no length specification for these interrogations. It is fine for them to be quite short – say 200 words or so – but longer memos are also OK (within reason – remember: I have to read and comment on all of these each week and everyone else in the class will read them as well). These memos should be emailed to me by 6 pm on the Monday night before the seminar meets. I will then read and comment on the interrogations and circulate them to the entire class late Monday night. Everyone should try to read all of these memos before coming to class on Tuesday afternoon. It is very important that you send me your interrogations by the deadline so that i have time to write comments. 2. Term papers Objectives. Term papers in PhD seminars should not primarily be regarded as glorified “homework”; they should be viewed as first drafts of potentially publishable papers. You should mainly be writing in order to communicate to the world, not to simply fill requirements. I thus encourage you very strongly to pick a topic that you really care about and write a paper which (with more work and revisions) could result in a publication. Schedule. In order to give you time to do serious reading and writing for the paper, the last regular meeting of the seminar will be on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (November 21). You will then have four weeks to complete your papers before the seminar’s mini-conference to be held December 16-17 (see below). Written proposals for term papers should be submitted no later than October 24, the 8th week of class. Collaboration. Students are free to write collaborative papers. This can consist either of fairly well demarcated parts of a paper written by each participating student or a fully collaborative project. Length. There is no fixed length for the term papers, but the rough expectation is something in the 20-25 page range (5000-7000 words more or less). Topics. Term papers for the seminar can be on any topic linked to the problem of class. Even though our discussions will mainly be theoretical, it is fine for papers to have a much more empirical focus. The papers should be quite self-conscious about the character of the class concepts used, but the paper need not be primarily about the concepts themselves. Sociology 929. Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis 3 Below are some broad suggestions for possible types of term papers: • Examine some empirical problem in class analysis using either qualitative or quantitative data within one of the approaches to class we have discussed. • Explore the foundations of some of the approaches to class analysis which we have not covered in the seminar such as the functionalist stratification approaches of the 1950s; the gradational and status-centered class analysis of W. Llyod Warner and others; the Marxian class analyses of French structuralist Marxism (Poulantzas, Balibar, Althusser); Gramsci’s approach to class; E.P. Thompson’s historicist approach, etc. • Take one of the broad traditions we have explored and then map out the variations within that “school” or tradition – varieties of Weber-inspired class analysis, varieties of Marx- inspired class analysis, varieties of Bourdieu-inspired class analysis, etc. • Examine the implications for philosophical/normative discussions of justice and inequality of different views of class analysis. • Take some interesting piece of empirical/historical scholarship in which class-relevant issues play an important role and explore the implications of alternative conceptualizations of class for the way the case study would be developed. This would need to be a fairly fine-grained analysis, not just a quick gloss. Examples of some studies which might be useful foils for such an analysis would include: Boltanski, The making of a class : cadres in French society Bernacki, Fabrication of Labor Ehrenreich, Nickle and Dimed Chakrabarty, Rethinking Working Class History: Bengal 1890-1940. Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity Willis, Learning to Labour Zussman, Mechanics of the Middle Class: work and poliics among American Engineers Whalley, The Social Production of Technical Work Crawford, Technical Workers in an Advanced Society: the work, careers and politics of French Engineers MIN-CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS OF TERM PAPERS At the end of the semester we will have a weekend mini-conference during which the term papers will be presented and discussed. There are roughly 18 students in the seminar. This means that we will need about 12 hours of actual presentation time for all of the papers to be presented and discussed. With breaks, etc., this means that we will need almost two days for the conference: all day Saturday, December 16th and part of Sunday the 17th. The conference will be held at a University of Wisconsin retreat on the Wisconsin River north of Madison. This mini- conference will take the place of the last three sessions of the seminar which will not meet in order to give students time to write their papers. Sociology 929. Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis 4 I will organize the mini-conference in the form of a standard professional sociological conference: there will be panels, presentations, and discussions. The conference will have the added value of giving participants practice for such events. Each paper will have roughly 20 minute for presentation and 20 minutes or so for discussion. SEMINAR SESSIONS The seminar discussions will revolve, to a significant extent, around the issues raised by the weekly written memos. I will review these memos and distill a core agenda for the seminar each week, which is one reason why it is important for you to get the memos to me by email by 6:00 Monday evenings. Depending upon how things go, I may also ask students to elaborate their memo as an impromptu presentation so you should be prepared to talk about them. Often in graduate seminars that deal with abstract theoretical matters students are eager to launch into intense debates over the adequacy of various formulations before the details and rationale for the arguments have been really nailed down. For each of the bodies of work we discuss I feel it is very important to spend time at the beginning of each session carefully laying out the arguments in a fine-grained way in order to be sure that we all fully understand the work in question. As an intellectual stance to studying this material, I think it would be good for everyone to play the role of a defender and explicator of each approach we study as well as critic. One other note on the seminar sessions. Academics (not just students) are often better at talking than listening, yet a good seminar depends as much on everyone listening to each other as it does on making fine speeches. Without good listening, the discussion is not a conversation but a disjointed series of proclamations. READINGS There is quite a lot of reading in this seminar. In the reading list which follows I have designated certain readings as “required” and others as “supplementary.” If possible it would be good to dip into the supplementary reading, but I will not expect you to read much of it. Most of the readings are on Electronic Reserve on the Social Science Reference Library website under the listing for Sociology 929. In the syllabus these are marked with an asterisk: *. You can either read these items online or print them out. In addition, the following books are at the Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative on Gilman Street: Erik Olin Wright (ed). Approaches to Class Analysis (Cambridge University Press: 2005) Paul Kingston, The Classless Society (Stanford, 2000) Charles Tilly, Durable Inequality (University of California Press, 1998) Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction (Harvard University Press: 1984) Andrew Sayer, The Moral Significance of Class (Cambridge University Press 2005) There are two books I tried to order but which are currently unavailable [These will be on the library’s e-reserve, but you can get used copies from various web booksellers]: Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, vol.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020
    SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020 DRAFT Class times and location Wednesday 10:30am -12:30pm Virtual synchronous Instructor: David Calnitsky Office Hours by appointment Department of Sociology Office: SSC 5402 Email: [email protected] Technical Requirements: Stable internet connection Laptop or computer Working microphone Working webcam “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” – Karl Marx That is the point, it’s true—but not in this course. This quote, indirectly, hints at a deep tension in Marxism. If we want to change the world we need to understand it. But the desire to change something can infect our understanding of it. This is a pervasive dynamic in the history of Marxism and the first step is to admit there is a problem. This means acknowledging the presence of wishful thinking, without letting it induce paralysis. On the other hand, if there are pitfalls in being upfront in your desire to change the world there are also virtues. The normative 1 goal of social change helps to avoid common trappings of academia, in particular, the laser focus on irrelevant questions. Plus, in having a set of value commitments, stated clearly, you avoid the false pretense that values don’t enter in the backdoor in social science, which they often do if you’re paying attention. With this caveat in place, Marxian social science really does have a lot to offer in understanding the world and that’s what we’ll analyze in this course. The goal is to look at the different hypotheses that broadly emerge out of the Marxian tradition and see the extent to which they can be supported both theoretically and empirically.
    [Show full text]
  • Mao Zedong's Class Analysis Method and Its Contemporary Value Shuang Li* No
    Advances in Intelligent Systems Research, volume 163 8th International Conference on Management, Education and Information (MEICI 2018) Mao Zedong's Class Analysis Method and Its Contemporary Value Shuang Li* No. 232, Wensan road, Xihu district, Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province [email protected] Keywords: Mao Zedong; Class analysis method; Contemporary value Abstract. In the article analysis of social classes in China written by Mao Zedong in 1925, the author combined the Marxist theory of class analysis with the concrete reality of Chinese society, and accurately divided the classes existing in Chinese society at that time, providing useful guidance for the formulation of revolutionary strategies. With the development of Chinese society becoming more and more complex and diversified, Mao Zedong's class analysis is still of great significance. Mao Zedong's thought of class analysis inspires us not to lose the Marxist theory of class analysis; In the new era, we should master the essence of class analysis theory and correctly analyze Chinese social class and class problems. The analysis of ideology should go deep into the class and stratum problems. We should use class analysis to build the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. Introduce. Since the reform and opening up, China has undergone profound adjustment and reform in its social and economic structure and industrial structure. China's social structure has become increasingly complicated and diversified, and some emerging strata have emerged. How can we properly analyze and grasp this new structure of Chinese society? At the same time, various ideological trends are surging in the ideological field, and people's values are diversified.
    [Show full text]
  • Class Structure and Political Ideology
    CLASS STRUCTURE AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY Val Burris Marxist theorists have devoted much eVort recently to the clari cation of the concept of class and the elaboration of alternative models of class structure. The main focus of this theorizing has been the class position of salaried intermediaries and their role in the class struggle. With a few exceptions, most Marxists today recognize the existence in advanced capitalist society of a signi cant group of people who cannot be included in the working class, even though they work for a salary or wage. Various names have been applied, to this group—“new middle class,” “new petty bourgeoisie,” or “professional-managerial class”—and com- peting theories have been advanced to explain the nature and signi cance of these positions within the class structure. Disagreements over how to conceptualize intermediate class positions have prompted extensive debates over the basic principles of Marxist class analysis and the application of those principles to modern capitalist society. Three issues have been central to this debate. First is the de nitional question of specifying the boundaries of classes—especially the bound- ary which separates intermediate class positions from the working class. Second is the conceptual issue of clarifying the nature and identity of these intermediate class positions. Do they qualify as a “class” in the full sense of the term? lf so, do they constitute a new class within advanced capitalism or the evolution of some earlier intermediate class? Third is the political question of predicting the alignment of this group in the struggle between capital and labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Class Struggle: a Critical Analysis of Mainstream and Marxist Theories of Nationalism and National Movements
    NATIONALISM, ETHNIC CONFLICT, AND CLASS STRUGGLE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MAINSTREAM AND MARXIST THEORIES OF NATIONALISM AND NATIONAL MOVEMENTS Berch Berberoglu Department of Sociology University of Nevada, Reno Introduction The resurgence of nationalism and ethnonationalist con ict in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its associated Eastern European states in their transition from a form of socialism to a market- oriented direction led by bourgeois forces allied with world capitalism during the decade of the 1990s, has prompted a new round of discus- sion and debate on the origins and development of nationalism and the nation-state that has implications for contemporary nationalism and nationalist movements in the world today. This discussion and debate has been framed within the context of classical and contemporary social theory addressing the nature and role of the state and nation, as well as class and ethnicity, in an attempt to understand the relationship between these phenomena as part of an analysis of the development and transformation of society and social relations in the late twentieth century. This paper provides a critical analysis of classical and contemporary mainstream and Marxist theories of the nation, nationalism, and eth- nic con ict. After an examination of select classical bourgeois statements on the nature of the nation and nationalism, I provide a critique of contemporary bourgeois and neo-Marxist formulations and adopt a class analysis approach informed by historical materialism to explain the class nature and dynamics of nationalism and ethnonational con ict. Critical Sociology 26,3 206 berch berberoglu Mainstream Theories of the Nation and Nationalism Conventional social theories on the nature and sources of national- ism and ethnic con ict cover a time span encompassing classical to con- temporary statements that provide a conservative perspective to the analysis of ethnonational phenomena that have taken center stage in the late twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Erik Olin Wright, Editor
    Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis Erik Olin Wright, editor with contributions by Richard Breen David Grusky Jan Pakulski Aage Sorensen Elliott Weininger Erik Olin Wright December, 2002 Table of Contents Introduction page 1 Erik Olin Wright Chapter 1 Foundations of Class Analysis in the Marxist 6 Tradition Erik Olin Wright Chapter 2 Foundations of Class Analysis in the Weberian 41 Tradition Richard Breen Chapter 3 Foundations of Durkheimian class analysis 70 David Grusky Chapter 4 Foundations of Class Analysis in the work of 119 Bourdieu Elliott Weininger Chapter 5 Foundations of neo-Ricardian class analysis 180 Aage Sørensen Chapter 6 Foundations of Anti-Class analysis 215 Jan Pakulski INTRODUCTION In March 2001, on the morning BBC Radio news program, a report was presented discussing a new seven-category class scheme being used in the British Census. Listeners were invited to the BBC website to see what class they were in. Within a few days there were over 50,000 hits on the site, a record for this sort of thing. At least for the segment of the British population that listens to the BBC morning news, class remains a salient issue. In the broadcast a number of people were interviewed. One police inspector responded to being told that he was now classified in Class I along with doctors, lawyers and chief executives of corporations, by saying “Does it mean now I have to wear tennis whites when I go out to do my gardening?....I don’t see myself socially or economically in the same class as them.” In a subsequent “live chat” program with Professor David Rose of Essex University, the principle designer of the new census categories, many people called up complaining about the coding scheme.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Centering Class in Critical Theory: a Tribute to Stephen A. Resnick (1938-2013) Rajesh Bhattacharya Ian Seda -Irizarry
    DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS Working Paper Re-centering Class in Critical Theory: A Tribute to Stephen A. Resnick (1938-2013) Rajesh Bhattacharya Ian Seda-Irizarry Working Paper 2014-02 1 Re-centering Class in Critical Theory: A Tribute to Stephen A. Resnick (1938-2013) Rajesh Bhattacharya1 and Ian J. Seda-Irizarry2 Abstract In this paper we pay tribute to Stephen Resnick (1938-2013), a major contributor to the Marxian theoretical tradition. We present a brief introduction to the works of Stephen Resnick and trace his intellectual journey to highlight the factors that had major influence on his work, in particular the influence of Louis Althusser. We note the emphasis on epistemological considerations and class exploitation in Resnick’s Marxist works. JEL Codes: B51, B31, A13 Keywords: Stephen Resnick, Richard Wolff, class, overdetermination, Louis Althusser Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Jack Amariglio, Jagdish Bhagwati, Victor Lippit, Gustav Ranis (1929-2013), and Edwin Truman for answering our queries, confirming facts, sharing personal anecdotes, and giving us permission to quote from personal email communications. We are grateful to Richard Wolff for giving useful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and giving us permission to quote from personal email communications. The authors also thank the referees David Kotz, Enid Arvidson and Jonathan Goldstein for their comments and suggestions. All the usual caveats apply. 1. Introduction In the wake of the recent economic crisis in richer countries and the subsequent slowdown in many countries worldwide, there is a discernible and growing interest in those traditions of thought, including the Marxian tradition, that emphasize the contradictory, exploitative and unstable nature of the capitalist economy.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 6 Foundations of a Post-Class Analysis
    CHAPTER 6 FOUNDATIONS OF A POST-CLASS ANALYSIS BY JAN PAKULSKI Contemporary class theories and analyses are grandchildren of Marxism. As noted by Wright in the Introduction, they share with their classic antecedent a broad explanatory aspiration. They aim at charting and explaining the structure of inequality, especially in economically defined lifechances, by linking these inequalities with the patterns of property and employment relations. They also aim at identifying key conflict-generating economic cleavages, especially those that underlie transformative social struggles. In doing that, they combine and compete with a number of alternatives - that is non-class - analytic and theoretical constructs. The latter include concepts and propositions derived from the Tocquevillian, Durkheimian and Weberian theoretical heritage: occupational theories of stratification that focus on social division of labour and occupational closure; “status” theories of inequality identifying value-conventional sources of racial, gender and ethno-national inequality and conflict; and theories concentrating on political power, organizational hierarchies of authority and the accompanying social tensions and struggles. This competition is complicated by partial convergence between the competitors. As the preceding chapters show, the classic Marxist heritage has undergone a number of reformulations that blur the boundaries between the original analytic distinctions of class, occupation, status and political power. Therefore any rendition of an analytic and theoretical confrontation between class and non-class accounts of social inequality, division and conflict has to rely on some – often contested – definitional distinctions. It is assumed here that class is a fundamentally economic phenomenon, that it is reflected in patterns of social “groupness”, that class location is reflected in social consciousness, identity and antagonism, and that it generates forms of action in economic and political field that have a potential to transform capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Class -- Sage.Pdf
    Social Class Erik Olin Wright Department of Sociology University of Wisconsin - Madison January 2003 Forthcoming in Encyclopedia of Social Theory, edited by George Ritzer (Sage Publications) 1 Few concepts are more contested in sociological theory than the concept of “class.” In contemporary sociology there are scholars who assert that “class as a concept is ceasing to do any useful work in sociology” (Pahl, 1989) or even more stridently proclaim “the death of class” (eg. Pakulski and Waters, 1996; see also Holton and Turner, 1989). Yet, at the same time, there are also sociologists who write books with titles such as Bringing Class Back In (McNall, Levine and Fantasia, 1991), Reworking Class (Hall, 1997), Repositioning Class (Marshall 1997), and Class Counts (Wright, 1997). In some theoretical traditions in sociology, most notably Marxism, class figures at the very core of the theoretical structure; in others, especially the tradition identified with Durkheim, only pale shadows of class appear. In what follows we will first examine in broad strokes the different ways in which the word class is used in sociological theory. This will be followed by a more fine-grained exploration of the differences in the concept of class in the two most important traditions of class analysis, the Weberian and the Marxist. Varieties of class concepts Many discussions of the concept of class confuse the terminological problem of how the word class is used within social theory with theoretical disputes about the proper definition and elaboration of the concept of class. While all uses of the word class in social theory invoke in one way or another the problem of understanding systems of economic inequality, different uses of the word are imbedded in very different theoretical agendas involving different kinds of questions and thus different sorts of concepts.
    [Show full text]
  • An Empirical Analysis of Neo-Marxist Class Theory and Political Attitudes and Beliefs
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1982 Class Structure and Ideology: an Empirical Analysis of Neo-Marxist Class Theory and Political Attitudes and Beliefs. George Frank Lord III Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Lord, George Frank III, "Class Structure and Ideology: an Empirical Analysis of Neo-Marxist Class Theory and Political Attitudes and Beliefs." (1982). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3811. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3811 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a jument sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or “ target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “Missing Page(s)” . If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark, it is an indication of either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, duplicate copy, or copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxist Class Categories and Income Inequality
    American Sociological Review, vol. 42, núm. 1, 1977, pp. 32-55. Marxist Class Categories and Income Inequality. Wright, Erik Olin y Perrone, Lucas. Cita: Wright, Erik Olin y Perrone, Lucas (1977). Marxist Class Categories and Income Inequality. American Sociological Review, 42 (1) 32-55. Dirección estable: https://www.aacademica.org/erik.olin.wright/42 Acta Académica es un proyecto académico sin fines de lucro enmarcado en la iniciativa de acceso abierto. Acta Académica fue creado para facilitar a investigadores de todo el mundo el compartir su producción académica. Para crear un perfil gratuitamente o acceder a otros trabajos visite: http://www.aacademica.org. 32 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW Sutherland,Edwin H. and Donald Cressey Westley, William A. 1974 Criminology. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 1953 "Violence and the police." American Swigert, Victoria Lynn and Ronald A. Farrell Journal of Sociology 59:34-41. 1976 Murder, Inequality and the Law: Dif- Wolf, Edwin D. ferential Treatment in the Legal Pro- 1964 Abstract of "Analysis of jury sentencing cess. Lexington, Ma.: Heath. in capital cases: New Jersey: 1937- 1961." Rutgers Law Review 19:56-64. Treiman, Donald Wolfgang, Marvin E. Forth- Occupational Prestige in Comparative 1961 "A sociological analysis of criminal coming Perspective. New York: Seminar. homicide." Federal Probation 23:48- Vines, Kenneth and Herbert Jacob 55. 1963 "Studies in judicial politics." in VIII Wolfgang, Marvin E. and Franco Ferracuti Tulane Studies in Political Science: 77- 1967 The Subculture of Violence. London: 98. Methaen. MARXIST CLASS CATEGORIES AND INCOME INEQUALITY * ERIK OLIN WRIGHT University of Wisconsin,Madison LUCA PERRONE Universitydegli Studi delta Calabria,Italy UniversityStatale di Milano, Italy American Sociological Review 1977, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE and LIST of PUBLICATIONS Richard D. Wolff
    CURRICULUM VITAE AND LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Richard D. Wolff Department of Economics University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 Office tel: 413-545-6351 Office FAX: 413-545-2921 Home address: 64 W 15th St., Apt 1W, New York, New York 10011 Home telephone: 646-336-8443 Home FAX: 646-336-7078 Email: [email protected] ************************************* Place and Date of Birth: Youngstown, Ohio, April 1, 1942 Marital Status: Married, two children, ages 31 and 28 Education: B.A. magna cum laude Harvard 1963 M.A. Economics Stanford 1964 M.A. Economics Yale 1966 M.A. History Yale 1967 Ph.D. Economics Yale 1969 Language Proficiency: Fluent in French and German Positions Held: Professor, Economics Univ. of Mass. since 1981 Assoc. Prof., Economics Univ. of Mass. 1973-1981 Asst.Prof., Economics City College, CUNY, 1969-1973 Instructor, Economics Yale, 1967-1969 [Visiting Professor, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), Spring, 1994] Published Work: Books: The Economics of Colonialism: Britain and Kenya, 1870-1930, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974. Rethinking Marxism: Struggles in Marxist Theory [Essays in honor of Paul M. Sweezy and Harry Magdoff], (co-edited with Stephen A. Resnick), 1 New York: Autonomedia Press, 1985. ** Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy (co-authored with Stephen A. Resnick), Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical (co-authored with Stephen A. Resnick), Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. [Japanese edition, new introduction, translated by N. Hirai and K. Takita, published in Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1991] Bringing it all Back Home: Class and Gender in the Modern Household (co-authored with Harriet Fraad and Stephen Resnick), London: Pluto Press and Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxist Class Analysis a Living Tradition in Australian Scholarship
    MARXIST CLASS ANALYSIS: A LIVING TRADITION IN AUSTRALIAN SCHOLARSHIP Thomas Barnes and Damien Cahill The Marxist approach to class has long been criticised within the academy. Many scholars have suggested it is no longer relevant, if indeed, it ever was, for understanding contemporary economies and societies. This article examines the recent trajectory of class analysis in Australia within the context of such criticism and changes within the capitalist economy and society that some claim make Marxist class analysis redundant. The article contends that such critiques significantly misinterpret the Marxist conception of class and miss recent developments within Marxist class analysis which attempt to account for changes within the capitalist economy. While the article takes a long- term view, plotting changes in class analysis since the 1970s, we are particularly concerned with the generation of new ideas and approaches in the last decade. Although not comprehensive, we argue that the evidence presented here is indicative of broader trends within Marxist scholarship. The article proceeds by, firstly, reiterating some of the main criticisms of Marxist class analysis. Second, the article reiterates the basic propositions of Marxist class analysis and acknowledges some of its main limitations. Third, we trace the decline of class analysis in the last three decades. Using an empirical study of class in Australian social science journals, we find indicative evidence of a fragmentation of scholarship, with small groups of researchers continuing to produce innovative ideas about class in a context in which class has declined as a source of debate and interaction, particularly among sociologists. The article concludes that Marxist class analysis remains a living tradition in Australian scholarship and outlines novel attempts to renovate the Marxist approach to class by Australian scholars since the 1990s.
    [Show full text]