The Chilean economy, an analysis of the dynamics of profits, investments and production: A Marxist approach

This article aims to examine the dynamics of the Chilean economy as a consequence of actions taken by companies whose aim is to make profits. As such, the economic analysis used is Marxist and makes use of those classical indicators described in Capital (Rate of Surplus-Value, Organic Composition of Capital and Rate of Profit). It is maintained that with the Marxist method, we can discover that behind the accumulation of incomes lies the fact that out of each 8 hours worked, only 3 finance wages and 5 benefit the owners of capital. That fraction of the unpaid labour received by capital but invested back as new capital, plus that ‘excess’ surplus value that is consequence of high copper prices, raises the physical, but not necessarily the value, capital-per-worker ratio. As a consequence, that relation of exploitation to capital accumulation, which Marx called the Rate of Profit, is found to fall, rise and then fall again. We understand that various approaches have been made to calculate the classical indicators and include some of them as alternative methods in our results.

Three problems of neo-Marxism, or What you need to know before using a neo-Marxist approach

The maturity of the neo-Marxist approach in cognition is determined not only by the heuristics of its theoretical and methodological foundations, but also by self-critical reflection. Three initial problems of the neo-Marxist approach are identified, which are useful to take into account when using it in scientific research: excessive criticism of neo-Marxist cognition, ideological bias of the neo-Marxist approach, conceptual uncertainty of capitalism as an object of neo-Marxism. It is proved that the ideological component is falsely identified with all neo-Marxism, and the critical component is treated trivially. The problem of the neo-Marxist approach lies not in the fact of a negative judgment about the reality under study, but in the level of theoretical and methodological support for the critical approach. It is necessary to distinguish criticism as a negative judgment and criticism as a dialectical logic of negation. The researcher can avoid the critical and ideological component of neo-Marxist research within the framework of the scientific tradition of neo-Marxism. This tradition does not deprive the researcher of the possibility of scientific search for new socio-economic reasons for the transformation of capitalism or new political ones by the subject of anti-capitalist resistance. The difference is that the ideological goal setting orients the researcher to the construction of the revolutionary situation of capitalism, and the scientific one – to the knowledge of the revolutionary factors of the existing «capitalist construct». More complex problem of the neo-Marxist approach is the conceptual uncertainty of capitalism. This problem requires a solution at the level of the community of neo-Marxist theorists. The unresolved nature of this problem affects the initial positions of new neo-Marxist studies. It does not allow us to define capitalism as an object of neo-Marxist research of any subject orientation. There are two options for a research strategy in this situation. First, it is possible, based on the conventional concept of truth, to join some neo-Marxist definition of modern capitalism and implement one’s subject research within the framework of the tradition of a particular neo-Marxist theorist. Secondly, it is possible to use the hypothetical-deductive method and proceed from the chosen understanding of capitalism as a hypothetical position, where the author’s subject of research is constituted as a consequence of this hypothesis and requires a verification check for truth. The solvability of general neo-Marxist epistemological problems means that there are no obstacles to the widespread application of neo-Marxism in social cognition.

The prescience and paradox of Erich Fromm: A note on the performative contradictions of critical theory

As social theorists seek to understand the contemporary challenges of radical populism, we would do well to reconsider the febrile insights of the psychoanalytic social theorist Erich Fromm. It was Fromm who, at the beginning of the 1930s, conceptualized the emotional and sociological roots of a new ‘authoritarian character’ who was meek in the face of great power above and ruthless to the powerless below. It was Fromm, in the 1950s, who argued that societies, not only individuals, could be sick. This essay traces the intertwining of psychoanalytic and sociological methods that allowed Fromm to create such new ideas. At the same time, it highlights how Fromm’s sociology was hampered by an economistic Marxist approach to the institutions and culture of democratic capitalist societies. Such theoretical restriction prevented Fromm from conceptualizing how institutions like democracy, science, and psychotherapy can provide resources for widespread emotional recuperation and civil repair.

Historical and theoretical aspects of the study of mass media

the article defines the basic concepts in the field of mass media research. It is noted that the research of mass communications is presented in the scientific and educational literature by a wide range of author’s positions on its structuring depending on the choice of features and priorities for the selection of structural elements. It is pointed out that the study of mass communication in Western countries is developing essentially as a single research complex with a focus on managerial, ideological and cultural aspects of com- municative influence on man and society. It is noted that there are three relatively independent areas of research: 1) non-verbal analysis of rationality in the «production of culture», with emphasis on the organization of mass media and ensuring a level of professionalism and sales in a competitive environment. 2) Neo-Marxist approach, with the study of the symbolic aspect of ideological coercion and political hegemony. 3) Neo-Durkheimian studies of «public perception», which focus on the formation by the mass media of collective ideas of a sense of solidarity of individuals as members of mass audiences. It is emphasized that the basis for the differentiation of approaches to the study of mass communication in society is the relationship between the role of spiritual and material factors. It is pointed out that on the one hand, culturological approaches are widespread, which focus on the study of mass communication in the context of ideas, values, ideas that are both produced and disseminated by them in society. On the other hand, the influential tradition of analysis of mass communication sharpens attention to the study of the structure of property relations, the peculiarities of the imple-mentation of market relations in the field of mass communication. The impact on the media of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, which significantly change their nature, expand their functions in the following areas: 1) decentralization - the choice of programs increasingly depends on the individual, 2)increasing the volume of information programs, 3) the possibility of interactivity - interaction communication for information exchange

Organization and organizing in revolutionary times: The case of Tunisian General Labor Union

Adopting Barker’s (2011) Marxist approach of a social movement “as a whole”, this article addresses the question of whether and how mass-membership movement organizations can break out of oligarchic authority and support a radical political protest movement. Using an ethnographic approach, this article explores how the UGTT (the Tunisian General Labor Union) responded to organizational challenges during the Tunisian popular uprising in 2010 by examining its intra-organizational processes as well as its interactions with other parts of the protest movement and how their struggles mutually aided the fall of Ben Ali’s regime. The findings highlight that two correlated aspects were critical to a radical transformation of UGTT’s conservative goal. First, unionists with activism experience outside the labor organization played a key role as “mediators,” deriving meaning from the organizational culture of the union to interpret the course of the event, supporting the popular uprising, and forcing the union leadership to join the revolutionary process. Second, the unpredictable and unprecedented regime repression radicalized the protest movement and its claims, and ruptured the union’s traditional bureaucracy. The article concludes by elaborating on the potential of organizational studies to help us understand the role of trade unions in protest movement organizing and, more broadly, the role of formal mass-membership organizations in social movements.

Marx, subsumption and the critique of innovation

This paper advances a Marxist approach to the critical study of innovation. Such an approach offers alternative analytical tools for understanding the social and political aspects of innovation that are increasingly coming into focus within academic and practitioner fields. After outlining the emerging field of critical innovation studies and its key concerns, I turn to the question of how a Marxist critique differs from other forms of critical scholarship. I then introduce Marx’s application of the concept of subsumption to account for the relation between innovation and capital and to demonstrate the strength of a Marxist approach to the critical study of innovation.

In the smoke of the people’s opium: The influence of religious beliefs and activities on protest participation

How does religion shape individual decisions to participate in protests? On the one hand, past literature from Tocqueville’s perspective has suggested that people’s involvement in religious activities leads to engagement in civic activities. On the other hand, the Marxist approach has pointed to the possibility that one’s religious belief may rather lead to decreasing participation in civil society. Combining these two conflicting perspectives, this study examines the influence of religious beliefs and activities on protest participation, an increasingly important form of civic participation in contemporary times. Using the World Values Survey across 48 countries, the author’s findings provide support for the Marxist approach by suggesting that people’s religious beliefs are significantly and negatively associated with one’s participation in protests especially in non-Western religions. Additionally, while the results fail to support the Tocquevillian perspective that one’s religious activities are directly related to protest participation, religious activities do have a countervailing effect by minimizing the negative influence of religious beliefs people hold on protest participation. This study provides important implications to further our understanding on the paradoxical relationship between religion and civic participation.

The Necessity of Contingency

Of all the standard criticisms of Marxism, the claim that it is wedded to a mechanical and deterministic account of history is among the most pervasive. It is also among the least defensible. This chapter argues that Marxism affords an especially strong set of analytical tools for explaining the contingencies of international law. Romanticising the concept of contingency as illuminative of aporia or ruptures—moments of radical uncertainty utterly at odds with the broader social contexts in which they register—risks relegating the events under scrutiny to the status of mutually unrelated accidents, to be lauded or lambasted in isolation or loose association. By contrast, a Marxist analysis of international law, one that is alive to the co-constitutive relations between class power and juridical authority, provides an explanatory framework within which contingencies may be comprehended. My argument proceeds in two stages. I first revisit some of the ways in which Marx engaged directly with questions of law and rights. I then draw upon Nicos Poulantzas’ theory of the state to propose a new Marxist approach to international law. My contention is that the question of law under capitalism is closely related to the question of contingency under capitalism, that the Marxist tradition’s responses to both questions are considerably more nuanced than they have generally been made out to be, and that being a ‘Marxist’ requires commitment not to the view that all contingency is illusory but simply to the view that contingency (like agency) is socially conditioned.