From: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM
Date: Sat Jan 29 2005 - 07:57:01 EST
> RETHINKING > MARXISM > > a journal of economics, culture & society > > VOL 17 No 1 > JANUARY 2005 > IN THIS ISSUE: > > SYMPOSIUM on CLASS and ITS OTHERS and RE/PRESENTING CLASS > > Focusing and expanding class analysis > Jonathan Diskin > > This paper reviews the modalities of Marxian class analysis in two > recent edited volumes, Class and Its Others and Re/Presenting Class: > Essays in Postmodern Marxism, edited by Stephen Resnick, Richard Wolff, > and J. K. Gibson-Graham. The essays in these volumes focus Marxian > class analysis--by adopting a specific Marxian conception of class as > the processes of producing (or performing), appropriating, and > distributing surplus labor time--and expand that class analysis--by > specifying the conditions of existence of class processes in concrete > cases in a series of provocative class narratives and analyses. > > > Class novelties: distributive processes and lived experiences > Evan Watkins > > There were a lot of complaints in the late seventies and through the > eighties that "class" was being left out of the triple mantra of > race/gender/class. Race and gender were being theorized in all kinds of > new and productive ways; class was not. In fact, there were a number of > ways in which class was taken up across the theory spectrum of the > eighties. But arguably Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff developed the > most comprehensive theory of class and class relations in their 1987 > book, Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy. > These two collections of essays contribute to and extend that > path-breaking effort. > > > The other of class > Andrew Parker > > Class and Its Others is a landmark collection of adventurous and often > surprising essays that move well beyond what have become the > shibboleths of antiessentialism to imagining new objects and discourses > of class analysis. But how much aleatoriness can materialism absorb and > still remain S materialist? Is the economic any less "itself" when > conceived as an "entry point" rather than a ground? Can a specifically > Marxist understanding of class survive an encounter with forms of > otherness that may not be its own? > > > Class analysis and politics: pushing the boundaries > S. Charusheela > > This review essay highlights postmodern Marxism's ability to address > issues of social change without modernism, Eurocentrism, telos, and > essentialism. By raising questions about how we define the distinctions > between modes of production and how we theorize spaces of > transformative hope, the essay suggests that postmodern Marxist > scholarship can go still further. Focusing on communal subject > formation, the essay suggests that the tools for addressing these > limits may be found within postmodern Marxist scholarship itself and > argues that, if pushed further, the political tensions that the arena > of collective subject formation creates can be usefully unpacked by > postmodern Marxists in productive ways. > > > E pluribus multa > Susan F. Feiner > > This paper discusses the "postmodern Marxism" of Class and Its Others, > edited by Stephen Resnick, Richard Wolff, and J. K. Gibson-Graham. Four > extensions of the postmodern move are particularly significant: > providing an operational (economic) definition of exploitation, > insisting on "close reading," grounding coalition politics in class > analysis, and insisting on plural meanings. > > > The point and purpose of Marx's notion of class > Stephen Resnick & Richard Wolff > > This response to comments made on Class and Its Others and > Re/Presenting Class explains why class exploitation conceived in Marx's > surplus labor terms is an outrage. The point of Marx's class analysis > is to expose this outrage and its pernicious effects on our lives. The > hope is that the resulting awareness will motivate us to eliminate it > from our lives, much like any other socially recognized disease or > crime. Working for that elimination is a new kind of politics, one > aimed squarely at placing workers who produced the surplus in the > position to collectively appropriate it. > > > Dilemmas of theorizing class > J. K. Gibson-graham > > Pushed by our reviewers to revisit perennial (meta)theoretical > questions and choices, we confront once again the dilemmas of > theorizing. Should we emphasize the emptiness or fullness of > categories? What historical baggage comes with our theoretical > categories and what violence does theory do to history and geography? > Must we sacrifice the heterogeneity within categories to constitute > differences between them? Can a category function simultaneously as a > ground and a product of analysis? Is there a virtue in consistency? > Should theory identify limits or explore possibilities, or should it > always do both? What constitutes a broadening of the theoretical > imagination? > > > ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: > > Why I left Alan Greenspan to seek economic significance: the > confessions of an a-male > Stephen T. Ziliak > > If progressive economists are serious about changing what is valued in > the economics research paper--and therefore in real-world > decisionmaking in courts and hospitals and the World Bank--they should > insist in their own research journals that current usage of statistical > significance has no theoretical justification. If Marxist journals > hurry up and change their ways they can beat to the punch the most > prestigious journal of economics in the world, the American Economic > Review, which, this paper shows, is filled with reports of statistical > significance but not with reports of what we really want, economic or > substantive significance. In empirical economics size, not fit, is what > matters, but the mainstream comes up short. Likewise, testing for fit > but not size is hurting Marxist analysis and the world. People > standing for jobs and justice and human lives should do better. No > size, we should say, no significance. > > > Gender and Marx's radical humanism in the economic and philosophic > manuscripts of 1844 > Judith Grant > > Marx speaks of "human" as a starting point for his discussion of > infinite variability, mutability, and differences among human beings. > In this article, I unpack Marx's notion of "species-being" in order to > establish Marx's idea about the historical nature of human beings. I > then go on to show how Marx viewed the male/female relation as an > indicator of the development of a nonanimalistic human. I conclude by > showing how Marxian humanism is radically socially constructivist yet > is allied with an active political "subject." I conclude by showing how > Marxian humanism can benefit feminist and queer theories. > > > Sans vue (or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the media) > Rene Gabri & Richard Gabri > > Rene Gabri and Richard Gabri, armed with the insights of Paul Virilio > concerning the 4th Front, present readers with the intellectual > process and material they have been using to produce their video, > OOSans Vue.ıı What they offer us in these pages is an active > engagement/an approach that encourages various modes of reading, > writing, or viewing the television coverage of the war --so that we can > join them in understanding how the media and the war have been > represented in each other. Gabri and Gabri are even more intent on > constructing the mechanisms and tools of resistance and critique in > order to struggle for a OOmedia to come,ıı which will not so readily > bow down to and serve the goals of empire. > > > On Althusser's immanentist structuralism: reading Montag reading > Althusser reading Spinoza > Giorgos Fourtounis > > This article investigates the way in which the Althusserian notions of > structure and structural causality, elaborated in his early work and > especially in Reading Capital, are constructed on the basis of the > Spinozist concept of immanent causality. In particular, it argues that > this construction necessarily involves a novel, radical conception of > the whole, an "immanent holism," opposing the two complementary, > traditional conceptions of the whole, the atomistic and the > transcendent. Further, this novelty is the counterpart of a necessary, > constitutive tension of the notion in question. > > > Whipping boy or ally? rethinking Dewey on education and capitalism > Masato Aoki > > This article facilitates allied Marxist-pragmatist investigation of > class/education interactions by analyzing the methodological and > thematic compatibility between postmodern Marxism (overdetermination, > contradiction, surplus-labor concept of class) and antifoundationalist > Deweyan pragmatism (reflexive experience, contextualist metaphysics, > reorganizing experience). The article traces Marxism's historical > antagonism toward pragmatism to traditional Marxism's structuralist and > humanist tendencies; describes postmodern Marxism's antiessentialist > method; interprets Deweyan pragmatism, emphasizing its > antifoundationalist ontological stance; and reframes Dewey's support of > capitalism within pragmatism's radical openness and rejection of > developmental endpoints. The article suggests lines of inquiry that > could be jointly pursued in an ongoing critical discourse between > postmodern Marxism and pragmatism. > > > Remarx > > Jonathan Scott > > This essay is a criticism of the prevailing theory of multiculturalism. > It focuses on the absence in the discourse of multiculturalism of the > "white identity," in particular the history of white racial oppression > in U.S. society and how this system of social control continues to > block a class-struggle approach to diversity and difference. An > alternative theory of multiculturalism is proposed through the "hip-hop > nation." The argument is that an authentic form of multiculturalism, > embodied by hip-hop music and culure, has existed for more than twenty > years, yet the official discourse of multiculturalism has ignored its > possibilities for expanding multiculturalism and deepening its base. A > "white blindspot" in multiculturalism appears to be responsible for > this omission. > > > Reviews > > Boone Shear reviews Pem Davidson Buckıs Worked to the Bone: Race, > Class, and Privilege in Kentucky, which traces the effects of race and > its conflation with class in consolidating elite power in U.S. history. > Shearıs conclusion is that Buck has devised OOan elegantly simple > modelıı that shows both how the system works and how future > transformations are possible. > > > In the second review, Clifford Staples is less convinced that Andrew > Levineıs book, A Future for Marxism? Althusser, the Analytical Turn, > and the Revival of Socialist Theory, represents a way forward. Staples > faults Levine for dismissing both the relevance of the New Left > (because it failed to appreciate the disappearance of the proletariat > and, with it, a revolutionary subject) and Althusserıs contributions to > Marxism (siding, instead, with the work of the Analytical Marxists). > > > > > > RETHINKING MARXISM > > A project of the Association for Economic and Social Analysis (AESA), > Rethinking Marxism (RM) has become > recognized as one of the premier interdisciplinary journals on the > Left. Now in its seventeenth year of publication, > RM aims to stimulate interest in and debate over the explanatory power > and social consequences of Marxian economic, cultural, and social > analysis. <snip, JL>
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