Marxism
remains a vibrant presence on its own and within several social science
disciplines. Sociologists Erik Wright
and Michael Burawoy talk about two ways that sociologists incorporate Marxism
into their thinking, “Using Marxism” and “Building Marxism.”
Many
sociologists use Marxism by
adding Marxist ideas to those of others. There is a kind of “common-sense” sociology today that focuses on issues
of inequality and conflict, which combines the ideas of Marx with those of
Weber and many others. You can see this
in theories of social movements and collective action, for example, Charles
Tilly’s From Mobilization to Revolution.
A
smaller number of sociologists commit themselves to building Marxism as
a distinct theory of society, history, and social change. Accepting the failure of socialist
revolution, many Marxists over the last eighty years or so have focused on the
“social reproduction” of capitalism.
This means looking at the mechanisms that mitigate the contradictions of
the system and dampen tendencies toward militancy. The work of Gramsci and several generations
of critical theory are devoted to this. Other Marxists have focused on capitalism as a world system, in which contradictions and inequalities play out
between core and peripheral societies. Still other Marxists have worked at unpacking the idea of socialism and
coming up with specific changes in capitalist societies that might counter the logic
of the market and exploitation. Erik
Wright’s “Real Utopias” project is
especially interesting.
The
specter of Marx also haunts most other radical theories of society, which often
begin as a critique of Marxism, especially in societies like France
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