Cultural Reader: Marx and Marxism concepts and terms explained

Marxism is an umbrella term for a group of theories and currents derived from the works of the philosopher Karl Marx and his view of reality as the dynamics of economic-material struggles fundamentally between classes in society. The premise of Marxism is that the lower classes are enslaved and exploited by the ruling classes in society, and that the purpose of these classes (and according to Marx also the purpose of history) is to change this situation.

The conception of the history of Marxism sees the technological change in the means of production as a driving force for the changes carried out by the social order and the division of labor (production relations) in society. The last stage in history as seen by Karl Marx is the overthrow of the proletariat and the establishment of an egalitarian society without exploitation and oppression.

However, as is well known, Marx's theory did not stand the test of history and capitalism in Europe only grew stronger without any revolution on the horizon. The need to deal with this failure of Marxism led to the need to rethink some of Marx's key conceptions, in parallel with the attempt to explain the non-occurrence of the proletarian revolution and thus neo-Marxism was actually born (see article) in the early decades of the 20th century.

Of course, Communism did pretty bad public relations for Marxism. However, Marxism, or rather neo-Marxism, is a concept that has widespread power today and continues to be the subject of theoretical discussion as well as the practice of subversion and rebellion in an attempt to bring about social change. In the collection of articles "Marx and Marxism concepts and terms explained" you will find a collection of discussions about different terms and foundations of Marxism, both the original of Karl Marx and later neo-Marxism and its incarnations in fields such as cultural studies and political economy.