Revisiting the Althusser/E. P. Thompson-Controversy: Towards a Marxist theory of communication. Issue 1 (March 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Revisiting the Althusser/E. P. Thompson-Controversy: Towards a Marxist theory of communication. Issue 1 (March 2019)
- Main Title:
- Revisiting the Althusser/E. P. Thompson-Controversy: Towards a Marxist theory of communication
- Authors:
- Fuchs, Christian
- Abstract:
- This essay revisits the controversy between Louis Althusser's Marxist structuralism and Edward P. Thompson's Marxist humanism. It draws conclusions from this controversy for the foundations of the Marxist theory of communication. The controversy's key disagreements concern the questions of how the economic and the non-economic (the base/superstructure problem), as well as structures and agency are related. Whereas Althusser focuses on articulation and over-determination, Thompson stresses the role of experience in society in general, and class societies in particular. This essay reflects on how both these approaches relate to the role of communication in society and capitalism. Communication is a process in which humans produce and reproduce social relations in manners that mediate not just understanding the world and other humans, but also the dialectic of structure and agency and the dialectic of society's realms. For a Marxist theory of society, also the forgotten meaning of communication as commoning is of crucial importance.
- Is Part Of:
- Communication and the public. Volume 4:Issue 1(2019)
- Journal:
- Communication and the public
- Issue:
- Volume 4:Issue 1(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 4
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0004-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 3
- Page End:
- 20
- Publication Date:
- 2019-03
- Subjects:
- Communication theory -- critical theory of communication -- Edward P. Thompson -- humanism -- Louis Althusser -- Marxist theory -- structuralism
Communication -- Periodicals
Communication -- Social aspects -- Periodicals
302.2 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.uk.sagepub.com/home.nav ↗
http://ctp.sagepub.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/2057047319829586 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2057-0473
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 11546.xml