Marx, Karl (1818–1883)

Abstract

Karl Marx's critique of economic inequality and appeals for social justice have inspired left‐wing political parties, labor movements, and insurgencies across the world. His ideas often have been fused with local political cultures and employed in diverse ways. Marx's participation in the communist movement, call for worldwide revolution, and totemic status in communist regimes have made him a very controversial thinker. In wealthy capitalist countries he has been more of an oppositional reference point than an inspirational figure. For much of the twentieth century, western sociologists viewed him as an ideologue, on the margin of their discipline. During the later 1960s and early 1970s, however, sociological interest in Marx increased, spurred by anti‐colonialist uprisings, student activism, and the New Left. In North American sociology, which previously had ignored or dismissed him, a new generation of theorists portrayed him as a founder of “conflict theory” or “critical sociology” and accorded him elevated status, along with Durkheim and Weber, as part of classical social theory's and sociology's founding troika. Later critics held that this canon was too narrow and Eurocentric and that the postmodern cultural shift and collapse of communism rendered Marx irrelevant. Others countered that globalization, deregulated capitalism, and increased economic inequality made him more relevant than ever. These divergent views aside, Marx's materialist perspective and concept of class have influenced much sociological work, including that claiming to disprove his theories. In the early twenty‐first century, Marxist sociologists worked in many parts of the world, and they even had their own section of the American Sociological Association. Moreover, sociologists with diverse orientations have employed concepts and questions originating from Marx in well‐established research and theory programs. Marx has had an enduring impact on sociology's development.