The concept of power

Marxism and theories of power

Marx is generally regarded as (amongst other things) a founder of one of the main schools of sociological analysis. This school has a particular take on power; one significant enough to devote some considerable attention to. You'll be reading a couple of texts that give you a more general take on Marx and Marxism, rather than a specific set of readings on power.

Marx's understanding of power is best viewed as a subset of his understanding of history. Marx has a particular take on what *matters* in human affairs, and what is a product of the real movement and moment of history. As Poulantzas demonstrates, Marx locates power in class, and he locates class in the relations of production. A few questions to ponder as you think about Marx on power:

Where, according to Marx, does power come from?

How does power shape people's lives?

How can power be confronted and challenged?

Why would Marx be unlikely to describe a particular person as "powerful" in any meaningful sense?

Poulantzas uses the phrase 'objective interests' in his conception of power. What is the signifigance of labelling these interests 'objective'?

Here's my favorite passage from The Communist Manifesto. It's about, amongst other things, the changes brought about by the advent of capitalism in Europe:

All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his, real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

What does this mean? How does the development of a new economic system do all this?

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Marx has more than one intellectual legacy. His most (in)famous legacy is as an advocate for communism as a political system. He has also made his mark on the 20th century in other ways; his social scientific methods have been adopted and used by many who don't share all of his politics, or even much of them. We'll try to talk about how this makes sense in class Thursday.

posted by David Watkins @ 4:58 PM