marxist sociology

Kelley kwalker2 at gte.net
Thu Feb 21 13:33:11 PST 2002


At 04:22 PM 2/21/02 +0000, Justin Schwartz wrote:


>>I would check out Gillian Rose's book "Hegel Contra Sociology" to see how
>>the paridigm of validity vs. value plays itself out in both marxist and
>>non-marxist sociology before you respond as sarcastically again.
>
>You know, something about you brings out the sarcastic in me. You've never
>seen a soc textbook that claimed Marx, Durkheim and Weber as the founders
>of sociology? Really? This formulation is so standard that it is a cliche.

for pete's sake, justin is so right here, it ain't funny--at least with regard to american sociology. (having debated stuff with angela in the past and read some of her work, australian social scientists who are sociologists seem to really dislike sociology for some reason AND its true that disciplines develop differently in different countries.)

That said, our dept chair used to call our comprehensive exams a ritual wherein we bowed to at the altat of marx, durkehim, and weber and in that order. yes sirreee, we did that! one of my comp questions was, "how would marx, durkheim, and weber analyze a contemporary social issue/problem in the news. this is n't pectuliar to our dept. it is true that we were once known for "theory" and so put miore interest in that approach, but that was changing with more feminists and researchers on board. hence, we continued to read the "classics" and an essential part of understanding feminist sociological theory is to understand its roots in the New Left experiences of women during the 60s and 70s.

most, if not nearly all, the soc texts in the discipline take marx as one of the "founders" in so far as he is the intellectual progenitor of a school of thought that someone identified as "conflict sociology".

it's true that marxist sociologists are marginalized. it's true that most folks don't read marx, in order to become sociologists. but it's the case that, when it comes to intro texts and theory and other artifacts that we can look, it's the case that marx is considered integral to the discipline.

i will also agree that much sociological marxism is not radical enough, especially since it's fucking hard to be radical in academia and because there are some imperatives in positivist science that makes practicing marxist sociology quite difficult and, hence, makes it less radical.

_sociological theory_ (ritzer, standard issue textbook for undergrads/grads)

part 1, section 2, Karl Marx 41-71pp

developments in marxian sociology

varieties of neo marxian theory 274-341pp

_sociology_ james henslin

there is is, karl marx and conflict sociology, a school of sociological thought

index: Marx, Karl 12, 26, 30, 170, 171.175, 188, 228-30, 232, 236, 247, 256, 259-60,

519, 520, 619, 626-27, 628, 635

Durkehim, Emil 12-14, 16, 17, 23, 30, 102, 103, 116, 150, 201, 217, 367, 388

572

(i don't even think henslin is much of a marxis, iirc)

and omigod! they mention marx, conflict theory, and its resurrection in sociology in the 60s under influence of New Left and the rise of feminist and black power movements. omigod! i can't believe it, in of all books, _marriages and families_ Nijole Benokraitis.

is it not really marxism if they attribute it to feminist and anti racist critique? just askin'.

and don't even think about looking at stanley eitzen and maxine baca zinn's stuff in _Diversity in Families_ which is shot through with a marxist feminist and socialist feminist perspective on families and gender inequality. so unmarxist of them

oh, then there's _sources: notable selections in sociology_ (finsterbusch and schwartz). it includes such non marxists as marx, marx and engles, c. wright mills, christopher hurn (radical sociology he bills it), adn immanuel wallerstein.

no marxist/radical/socialist sociologists there. nope.

Oh well fuckmedead, there is an entire chapter on marxism and neo marxism in McQuaries's _Readings in Contempoary Theory_ Marcuse, Kasinitz, Habermas, Wallerstein, Wright, Lise Vogel (oh fuck, no kidding, Vegel's chapeter is Marism and Socilist Feminist Theory: A Decade of Debate)

and we find marx listed and written about in _society in focus_ (thompson and hickey), _sociology in our times_ (kendall). and _sociology_ (wallace, and wallace)



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