It has become an intellectual commonplace to claim that we have entered the era of 'postmodernity'. Three themes are embraced in this claim; the poststructurist critique by Foucault, Derrida and others of the philosophical heritage of the Enlightenment; the supposed impasse of High Modern art and its replacement by new artistic forms; and the alleged emergence of 'post-industrial' societies whose structures are beyond the ken of Marx and other theorists of industrial capitalism. Against Postmodernism takes issue with all these themes. It challenges the idealist irrationalism of post-structuralism. It questions the existence of any radical break separating allegedly Postmodern from Modern art. And it denies that recent socio-economic developments represent any fundamental shift from classical patterns of capital accumulation. Drawing on philosophy and history, Against Postmodernism takes issue also with some of the most forthright critics of postmodernism -- Jurgen Habermas and Fredric Jameson, for example. But it is most distinctive in that it offers a historical reading of the theories of such currently fashionable thinkers as Baudrillard and Lyotard. Postmodernism, Alex Callinios argues, reflects the disappointed revolutionary generation of '68, and the incorporation of many of its members into the porfessional and managerial 'new middle class'. It is best read as a symptom of political frustration and social mobility rather than as a significant intellectual or cultural phenomenon in its own right.

Against Postmodernism: A Marxist Critique

Politics & Social Sciences

Alex Callinicos

Social Sciences

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

It has become an intellectual commonplace to claim that we have entered the era of 'postmodernity'. Three themes are embraced in this claim; the poststructurist critique by Foucault, Derrida and others of the philosophical heritage of the Enlightenment; the supposed impasse of High Modern art and its replacement by new artistic forms; and the alleged emergence of 'post-industrial' societies whose structures are beyond the ken of Marx and other theorists of industrial capitalism. Against Postmodernism takes issue with all these themes. It challenges the idealist irrationalism of post-structuralism. It questions the existence of any radical break separating allegedly Postmodern from Modern art. And it denies that recent socio-economic developments represent any fundamental shift from classical patterns of capital accumulation. Drawing on philosophy and history, Against Postmodernism takes issue also with some of the most forthright critics of postmodernism -- Jurgen Habermas and Fredric Jameson, for example. But it is most distinctive in that it offers a historical reading of the theories of such currently fashionable thinkers as Baudrillard and Lyotard. Postmodernism, Alex Callinios argues, reflects the disappointed revolutionary generation of '68, and the incorporation of many of its members into the porfessional and managerial 'new middle class'. It is best read as a symptom of political frustration and social mobility rather than as a significant intellectual or cultural phenomenon in its own right.

Against Post Modernism: A Marxist Critique

St.Martin's Press

Is There a Future for Marxism?

Politics & Government

Trotskyism.

Sociology

Open Univ. Press

Making history: Agency, structure, and change in social theory

The problem of historical change has come to assume central importance among English-speaking social scientists in the past ten to fifteen years. Much attention has been focused on how we relate institutions and institutional change to actions, and how we think of history as the outcome of this process. This book looks at both Marxist and non-Marxist positions in this debate, examining in detail the work of Hobsbawm, Thompson, Cohen, Althusser, Giddens and Habermas amongst others. Callinicos argues that both functionalism and methodological individualism, and the various attempts to reconcile these extremes, are untenable. Drawing on classical Marxism, analytical philosophy and recent historical work, Callinicos has produced a useful contribution to the debate, developing an argument which should affect its terms in the future.

Polity Press

Theories and Narratives

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Duke University Press

Social Theory

Blackwell*publishers

Socialists and the Trade Unions by Alex Callinicos (1995-05-10)

Business & Money

Economics

Bookmarks

Deciphering Capital

Bookmarks Publications

Criticism of Post-Modernism Marxism (Korean Edition)

Bookmark

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Books by Alex Callinicos