ماه: اسفند ۱۳۹۷

کارگاه ترجمه ۲

For many, the death of socialism, both in reality and in the imagination, has spelled the final death of Marxism. Nonetheless, Marxism continues to offer the most comprehensive critique of capitalism as well as a compelling guide to feasible alternatives. Indeed, the longevity of capitalism guarantees the longevity of Marxism. But longevity also implies reconstruction. As capitalism rebuilds itself so must Marxism. It is after all a theoretical tradition that claims ideas change with the material world they seek to grasp and transform. Thus, every epoch fashions its own Marxism, elaborating that tradition to tackle the problems of the day. In this article I offer the outlines of a Sociological Marxism that emerges from the hitherto unexamined and unexpected convergence of the mid-twentieth-century writings of Karl Polanyi and Antonio Gramsci. That they both, independently, converged on the concept of “society” from very different Marxist traditions suggests they were grappling with something novel and important. Indeed, it is the thesis of Sociological Marxism that the dynamism of “society,” primarily located between state and economy, is a key to the durability and transcendence of advanced capitalism, just as its fragility proved to be the downfall of Soviet communism. I shall try to…