The foundational basis of Marxist sociology is the investigation of capitalist stratification. An important concept of Marxist sociology is "a form of conflict theory associated with…Marxism's objective of developing a positive (empirical) science of capitalistsociety as part of the mobilization of a revolutionary working class."[2] The American Sociological Association (ASA) has a section dedicated to the issues of Marxist sociology that is "interested in examining how insights from Marxist methodology and Marxist analysis can help explain the complex dynamics of modern society."[3]
Concepts and issues
Marxist sociology is primarily concerned with, but not limited to, the relations between society and economics.[3] More specifically, key concepts in the sub-field include historical materialism, modes of production, and the capital-labour relation.[2] Marxist sociology is also concerned with the way in which police forces are used to control indigenous populations, enslaved peoples, and the labouring poor in the name of capitalism.[4]
Key questions asked by Marxist sociologists include:[1]
How does capital control workers?
How does a mode of production influence the social class?
What is the relation between workers, capital, the state and culture?
How do economic factors influence inequalities such as those relating to gender and race?
What role do police play within Marxist socialism?
The study of "socio-nature" emerged from this line of thought. Socio-nature is "a concept that is used to argue that society and nature are inseparable and should not be analyzed in abstraction from each other."[5]
Much of the development in the field occurred on the outskirts of academia, pitting Marxist against "bourgeois" sociology. For some time, this division was reinforced by the Russian Revolution that then led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Soon, however, sociology found itself a victim of the suppression of "bourgeois" science within the Soviet Union. While, after several decades, sociology was reestablished in the Communist states, two separate currents of thought evolved within Marxist sociology:
Soviet Marxism: a Marxist-Leninist school that developed under 20th-century Communism (primarily the Soviet Union) to serve state interests. The school was heavily influenced by Marx's theory of historical materialism.
Western Marxism: a Marxist school centered on the studies of Marxism in the West. It would become accepted within Western academia during the 1940s, and would subsequently fracture into several different perspectives, such as the Frankfurt School (critical theory)
Due to its former state-supported position, there has been a backlash against Marxist thought in post-Communist states (e.g. sociology in Poland). However, Marxist sociology is still dominant in sociological research that is sanctioned and supported by remaining Communist states (e.g. sociology in China).
^Bear, Christopher (2017-03-06), "Socio-Nature", in Richardson, Douglas; Castree, Noel; Goodchild, Michael F.; Kobayashi, Audrey (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 1–5, doi:10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0212, ISBN978-0-470-65963-2, retrieved 2021-08-06