neo-marxism

• humanistic neo-marxism

  emphasising the role of ideas (action theories and interpretive sociology)
• Gramsci's concept of hegemony

  leadership which explains how ruling class maintains its position
• voluntarism

  humans have free will

  ideas central in changing the world
• ruling class is dominated by:

  • coercion - the use of the army, police and other government agencies to force other classes to accept ruling class ideology
  • consent (hegemony) - uses ideas and values to persuade the other classes that ruling class ideology is legitimate
• reasons why ruling class hegemony is never complete

  1. the ruling class are a minority - to maintain their rule, they must create a power bloc (alliances) with other groups such as the middle class
  2. dual consciousness - working class can see through the dominant ideology to a certain extent, they are influenced by the bourgeoisie ideas but also by their material conditions - needs a crisis
• organic intellectuals

  a body of class conscious workers who can formulate an alternative vision - Youtube, Social Media Influencer (Greta Thunberg)

  members of the WC that can articulate an ideology due to personal experience
• state apparatus

  armies of men: police, CJS, military

  'armed bodies of men' which coerce working class to comply
• ideological state apparatus

  media, education, family etc

  ideologically manipulate working class into accepting capitalism as legit
• 3 levels of structural determinism

  • economic level
  • all activities which produces something to satisfy a need
  • political level
  • all forms of organisation including RSA which coerce workers into the false class consciousness
  • ideological level
  • the way people see themselves and the world, including ISAs which socialise and manipulate people into false class consciousness
• relative autonomy

  partial autonomy from the economic level

  the political and ideological levels are more than a reflection of the economic level but there is in fact 2 way causality

  economic level dominates in capitalism but the political and ideological functions are indispensable
• requirements for socialism to come about

  humanistic neo-marxism

  working class actively develop a class consciousness and choose to overthrow capitalism

  counter hegemony created by the working class to over thrown the cultural hegemony of the ruling class

  structural neo-marxism

  a crisis of capitalism due to over determination (contradictions in 3 levels of structural determination which results in collopse
• neo-marxism

  combines marxism with other approaches
• evaluation of neo-marxism: humanistic neo-marxism

  over-emphasising the role of ideas e.g. workers may tolerate as they feel as if they have no choice

  under-emphasises the role of state coercion and economic factors - fear repression/unemployment

  Willis describes working class lads as partially penetrating bourgeoisie ideology (seeing through school ideology to recognise myth of meritocracy

  explains how many see ideology

  not actually free agents
• evaluation of neo-marxism: structural neo-marxism

  economic determinism is replaced by a more complex system

  ignores that the active struggles of the working classes have changed society for the better in many countries

  Thompson - Althusser is elitist and suggests people follow communist party blindly

  Gouldner - scientific approach discourages political activism as it stresses that individuals can do little to change society