1st Edition

Marxist Political Economy and Bourdieu Economic and Cultural Capital, Classes and State

    170 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book systematically addresses Bourdieu’s key ideas and concepts in the context of Marxist thought. In this book, Bourdieu’s central theoretical points are analyzed within a political, sociological and politico-economic framework which allows for the development of a sequential narrative of his key ideas. Thus, the authors are able to highlight the theoretical consistencies and political conclusions which can be derived from Bourdieu’s work. For example, Bourdieu’s anti-neoliberal narrative is correlated with his analysis of class, and especially with his canonization of the petty bourgeoisie and its strategy for a reformed anti-neoliberal capitalism. The book also analyzes this coherent synthesis of Bourdieu’s work in the context of Marxist political economy, including not only Marx but also Lenin, Althusser and Poulantzas. In this context, the book explores Bourdieu’s work on the state, class strategy, socialism and capitalism. This unique perspective will be of great interest to social scientists, particularly in economics, politics and sociology, working on Bourdieu, Marx and capitalism.

    INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH QUESTIONS

    1. ‘CAPITALS’, ‘FIELDS’, DOMINANT CLASS, INTELLECTUALS AND STATE: ASPECTS OF BOURDIEU’S ANALYSIS

    1.1 ‘Capitals’, ‘fields’ and classes

    1.2 Dominant class and ‘field of power’

    1.3 Organic solidarity’ and the increasing importance of the ‘general bureaucratic training’

    1.4 The ‘priority’ of ‘consent’

    1.5 The rejection of the ‘dichotomy’ between economic base and superstructure

    1.6 The struggles within the dominated fraction of the dominant class: ‘Left hand of the state’ and ‘right hand of the state’

    1.6.1 The defence of the ‘social conquest’ of the past and the ‘left hand of the state’

    1.7 The state as ‘meta-field’

    2. A FIRST CRITICAL CODIFICATION: INTELLECTUALS, CAPITALISM AND THE PRINCIPAL CONTRADICTION OF CAPITALISM

    2.1 The centrality of the intellectuals: the two theoretical instances

    2.1.1 The first theoretical instance

    2.1.2 The second theoretical instance

    2.1.3 The integration of the ‘left’ and ‘right’ and the ‘two states’

    2.2 The non-theorization of capitalism

    3. THE SOCIAL CLASSES: BOURDIEU’S AND MARXIST ANALYSIS

    3.1 Relations of production, modes of production and class affiliation: preliminary discussion

    3.2 The capitalist mode of production, the capitalist state, the bourgeoisie and the working class

    3.2.1 The elementary and the specific feature of the capitalist mode of production and the emergence of the bourgeoisie and the working class

    3.3 The new petty bourgeoisie of the capitalist mode of production and its distinction from the working class and the higher managers

    3.3.1 The working class and the new petty bourgeoisie of the capitalist mode of production

    3.3.2 The higher managers

    3.4 The heads of the state apparatus and the new petty bourgeoisie of the state

    3.4.1 The heads of state apparatus

    3.4.2 The new petty bourgeoisie of the state

    4. POTENTIAL IDEOLOGICAL-POLITICAL CLASS POSITION OF THE NEW PETTY BOURGEOISIE OF THE CAPITALIST MODE OF PRODUCTION AND OF THE STATE: A CRITICAL READING OF POULANTZAS’S ANALYSIS

    4.1 Class structural determination (structural class position) and potential ideological-political position: the distinction

    4.2 Digression: The merger of all the middle classes through ‘pertinent effects’, the enlargement of the new petty bourgeoisie and the shrinkage of the working-class in Poulantzas’s analysis

    4.2.1 The unification of middle classes

    4.2.2 The enlargement of the new petty bourgeoisies and the shrinking of the working class

    4.3 The potential ideological-political position of the new petty bourgeoisie (of the capitalist mode of production and of the wider state) and the question of the ‘autonomous class strategy’

    4.3.1 At the ideological level

    4.3.2 At the political level

    4.3.3 ‘Demands’ and ‘political interests’ of the new petty bourgeoisie

    4.4 The state capitalism as a potential strategic orientation of the new petty bourgeoisie

    5. AGAIN FOR THE STATE: CLASS AND ‘UNIVERSAL’

    5.1 Bourdieu’s ambiguities: introductory remarks

    5.2 The ‘bourgeois’ as ‘universal’

    5.3 ‘The double character of the State’ and the question of class struggle within the state

    5.4 The ‘bearers’ of ‘universal’: ‘right hand of the state’ and ‘left hand of the state’

    5.4.1 The ‘right hand of the state’ as the ‘bearer’ of ‘universal’

    5.4.2 The ‘left hand of the state’ as the ‘bearer’ of universal’ against the ultra-liberal conservative revolution’ and Marxism

    EPILOGUE

    Biography

    George Economakis is Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Patras. Theofanis Papageorgiou is Assistant Professor of Economic Analysis at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Patras.