Marxism in Contemporary Sociology

Abstract

Marxism has a presence in contemporary sociology in three principle forms: assimilating Marxism, usingMarxism, and building Marxism. The first of these is identified with the way Marxism is incorporated into mainstream sociology, the second with Marxist sociology, and the third with what might be called ‘sociological Marxism.’ The Marxist tradition of social theory as a whole is built around three theoretical clusters. (a) A theory of the trajectory and destiny of capitalism. (b) A theory of the contradictory reproduction of capitalism. (c) A normative theory of socialism and communism. Sociological Marxism is most firmly grounded in the second of these. It is built around three central theses. Thesis a The social reproduction of class relations thesis, which argues that class structures are inherently unstable forms of social relations and require active institutional arrangements for their reproduction. Thesis b The contradictions of capitalism thesis, which argues that the institutional solutions to the problems reproducing capitalist class relations have a systematic tendency to erode and become less functional over time. Thesis c The institutional crisis and renovation thesis, which argues that because of theses (a) and (b), the institutions of social reproduction in capitalist societies will tend to encounter crises and be periodically renovated.