This book makes a relevant contribution to a Marxist critical explanation of social conflicts, social movements and protests. There is abundant literature on social conflict and social movements from Marxist perspectives. However, rigorous criticism, both theoretical and methodological, is scarce. The objective of this volume is the collection of works developing a critical reflection on the categories of theories about contentious collective action and social movements from a Marxist perspective. In order to better understand these phenomena and go beyond their mere case description, the theory needs to be improved. To that end, the book also promotes the debate between Marxisms and the collective action and new social movements in a renewed way. Here different Marxist arguments consider not only their methodological and ideological bias, but also the specific conceptual contributions of those theories.
Author(s): Adrián Piva, Agustín Santella
Series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 324
City: Cham
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Why a Marxist Critique of Theories of Collective Action and Social Movements Is Significant?
The Roads to a Marxist Theory of Class Struggle
The Legacy of Classical Marxism
Class Struggle as a Theoretical Object
Antecedents of a Marxist Critique of Collective Action and Social Movements Theories
Presentation of the Content in This Volume
References
Chapter 2: From the Critique of Collective Action Theories to the Study of Political Class Composition
Introduction
From the Critique of the Theories on Collective Action to the Development of Dimensions for the Analysis of Processes of Political Class Composition/Decomposition
Possibilities and Limits
From Technical Composition to Political Composition: Social Infrastructure, Mobilization and Organization as Process Dimensions
Conclusions
References
Chapter 3: Class Formation and Collective Action from a Marxist Perspective
Introduction
Background
Socialisation and Individualisation in Marxism
The Productive Forces
The State
Power, Solidarity and Mobilisation
Conclusions
References
Chapter 4: From Mechanisms to Dynamics: How to Embed Social Movement Studies Within Historical Materialism
Introduction
Choosing Different Entry Points to Research Social Movements
Integrating SMS into a Historical Materialist Framework
A Dialectical Method
Contradictions and the Cognitive Dynamic
The Social Whole and the Environmental Dynamic
The Organizational Dynamic
Adding a New Dynamic: The Institutional Dynamic and the Capitalist State
By Way of Conclusion: Conceptualizing Social Movements Within a Theory of Capitalism
References
Chapter 5: The Denial of Social Classes in the Theory of Collective Contentious Action
An Example: 1848
Marx and the Theory of Collective Action
Marx’s and Engels’ Concept of Social Classes
Society Versus Individuals
Form and Content
Individuals and Class Interest
References
Chapter 6: On Dignity: Reflections on the Rationality of Insurrectional Actions
Introduction
From Consciousness to Action (and Vice Versa)
On Collective Action (and Its Rationality)
Some Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 7: A Marxist Perspective on Workers’ Collective Action
Introduction
Mobilization Theory: A Critique
A Return to the Labour Process
Cooperation, Solidarity and Workers’ Collective Action
Conclusions and Implications for Empirical Analysis
References
Chapter 8: Work, Reproduction and Informality: Challenges for a Marxist Politics of Labour
Informal Labour
Reproductive Labour
Bringing the Concepts Together
References
Chapter 9: Gramsci, Theoretician of Political Subjectivation: The Subalternity–Autonomy–Hegemony Triad
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
References
Chapter 10: Surplus Populations, Working-Class Struggles and Crises of Capitalism: A World-Historical Materialist Reconceptualization
Introduction
Dynamics of Historical Capitalism and Particularities of Labor Unrest: An Empirical Paradox?
Surplus Populations and Struggles for Survival Within the Interstices of Capitalism
Legitimacy Crisis of Capitalism and Social Rebellions of the Surplus Populations
Protests Against Unemployment, 1850–2016
Stagnant Surplus Protests for the Reproduction of Livelihood
Race, Violence, and Crime
Riot-Strike-Riot?
Capitalist Expansion, Dispossession, and Struggles of Latent Surplus Populations
Uneven Development and Formal Subsumption
Semi-Proletarianization as the Dominant Mode
Labor Aristocracies, Middle Classes, and Latency Ex-Post
Conclusion
References
Chapter 11: Being on the Side of Workers: On the Normative Foundations of Global Labour Studies
The Normative Gap in Global Labour Studies
Problematising Value Freedom
Class Domination and the Suffering of Workers
Neoliberalism and the Imperative of the Market
Trade Unionism and Social Critique
Qualified Ethical Naturalism as a Normative Foundation
The Normative-Critical Subtext of Global Labour Studies
Analytical and Political Implications
References
Chapter 12: About the Old and New “Class Maps”: Notes on the Formation of the Working Class
Introduction
Relations Between Class and Labour: The Mobilisation of Social Labour
Relations Between Class and the Notions of Commodification, Exploitation and Dispossession
Notes on Processes of Working-Class Formation in Latin America
Conclusions
References
Index
