Spring 1993 SOCIOLOGY 5055 MODERN MARXIST THEORY Professor: Martha E. Gimenez Office: Hunter 206 Telephone: 303-492-7080 COURSE DESCRIPTION This seminar is designed to examine the contributions of Marxist and neo-Marxist thought to the analysis of the crucial issues of our times. Marxists ask different questions from those asked by non-Marxist social scientists. Their answers increase our knowledge and open new avenues for theorizing and research. The seminar will be devoted to theoretical and methodological questions: the object of study of historical materialism, causality, modes of determination, the relationship between micro and macro levels of analysis, the limits of methodological individualism, the limits of rational choice theory, the relationship between structure and agency, the social significance of time and space, the role of nature as a limiting factor, and the limitations of 19th century paradigms to grasp current processes of change. GRADES WILL BE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING: 1. Weekly Question and Answer Each week you are to turn in a) a question that you think gets at the heart of the issue(s) om the set of readings for that week, and b) an "answer" to it (i.e., your thesis statement), in a few sentences (two pages or less). Ask a definite question and provide a definite answer to it double spaced, typed or legibly printed. Put your weekly question-and-answer in my mail box every Monday. 2. Short Essays Every four weeks, beginning with February 26, you are to turn in an essay on the previous readings (for a total of THREE essays) in which you ask a definite question on any issue you wish to explore and provide a definite answer to it (in 4 pages or less). Essays must be double spaced, typed or legibly printed. Turn this assignment to me in class (the March essay excepted, which you can leave in my mail box). Essays will be due February 26, March 29, and April 22. 3. Final Essay This essay is due on or before the day of the final, whichever is more convenient for you. It should reflect your learning in this course, consisting of a presentation of those elements of Marxist theory and methodology you found most useful from the standpoint of your research interests and general intellectual concerns. You can choose to write an abstract theoretical papepr or a paper where you identify those elements in marxist thought most pertinent for the study of a given issue (e.g., social movements, gender inequality, etc.). The essay should be double spaced, typed or legibly printed and should be 20 pages or less, excluding footnotes and bibliography. Cite works and provide your list of references in accordance with the ASR reference format. 4. Class Presentations You will be expected to give a brief presentation in class on the major theoretical and methodological principles learned in the assigned readings. Your talk should be designed to provide us NOT with a summary of what you have read but rather with the key theoretical and methodological issues you have been able to identify, contrasting and comparing them, if possible, with non- Marxist ones. What form your presentation takes is up to you and depends on the nature of the materials themselves; i.e., whether they are Marx's original works, or modern Marxist and neo-Marxist writings, and whether they refer to the theory of history or to questions of method. THE SHORT ESSAYS COUNT ABOUT 30 PERCENT OF THE COURSE GRADE; THE FINAL ESSAY, ABOUT 50 PERCENT. tHE 20 PERCENT REMAINDER IS A MIX OF ASSESSMENT OF YOUR WEEKLY QUESTIONS, AND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO CLASS DISCUSSIONS THROUGH STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED PRESENTATIONS. REQUIRED READINGS 1. Jon Elster, KARL MARX: A Reader. Cambridge University Press, 1986. 2. G. A. Cohen, KARL MARX'S THEORY OF HISTORY: A Defense. Princeton University Press. 3. Erik O. Wright, E. Sober, and Andrew Levine, RECONSTRUCTING MARXISM. Verso, 1992. 4. Immanuel Wallerstein, UNTHINKING SOCIAL SCIENCE. The Limits of Nineteenth-Century Paradigms. Polity Press, 1991. 5. "Theory and Method I: abstraction, structure and cause," and "Theory and Method II: types of systems and their implications," pp. 79-136 in Andrew Sayer, METHOD IN SOCIAL SCIENCE. A Realist Approach. Hutchinson, 1984. 6. "Methodological Introduction," pp. 9-29 in Erik O. Wright, CLASS, CRISIS AND THE STATE. Verso, 1979. 7. Ellen Meiksins Wood, "Rational Choice Marxism: Is the Game Worth the Candle?" NEW LEFT REVIEW 177 (Sept-Oct) 1989: 41-88. 8. Amy S. Wharton, "Structure and Agency in Socialist Feminist Theory," GENDER & SOCIETY (September) 1991, pp. 373-398. 9. Martha E. Gimenez, "The Mode of Reproduction in Transition: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis of the Effects of Reproductive Technologies," GENDER & SOCIETY (September) 1991, 334-350 10. Immanuel Wallerstein, "The Construction of Peoplehood: Racism, Nationalism, Ethnicity." (unpub. manuscript), 11. Charles W. Mills, "Marxism and Naturalistic Mystification," SCIENCE & SOCIETY, Vol. XLIX, No.4, (Winter) 1985, pp. 472-483. 12. Michael Burawoy, "The Limits of Wright's Analytical Marxism and an Alternative," pp. 78-99 in E. O. Wright et al, THE DEBATE ON CLASSES. Verso, 1989. RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS 1. Roy Bhaskar, RECLAIMING REALITY. A Critical Introduction to Modern Philosophy. Verso, 1989. 2. Sean Sayers, REALITY AND REASON. Dialectic and the Theory of Knowledge. Basil Blackwell, 1985. 3. Tom Bottomore et al, A DICTIONARY OF MARXIST THOUGHT. Harvard University Press, 1983. 4. Derek Sayer, THE VIOLENCE OF ABSTRACTION. The Analytical Foundations of Historical Materialism. Basil Blackwell, 1987. 5. Alex Callinicos, THE REVENGE OF HISTORY. Marxism and the East European Revolutions. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.