Introduction

In this work I shall undertake a fundamental reinterpretation of Marx's mature critical theory in order to reconceptualize the nature of capitalist society. Marx's analysis of the social relations and forms of domination that characterize capitalist society can be most fruitfully reinterpreted by rethinking the central categories of his critique of political economy. Toward that end, I shall seek to develop concepts that fulfill two criteria: First, they should grasp the essential character and historical development of modern society; and second, they should overcome the familiar theoretical dichotomies of structure and action, meaning and material life. On the basis of this approach, I shall try to reformulate the relation of Marxian theory to the current discourses of social and political theory in a way that has theoretical significance today, and provides a basic critique of traditional Marxist theories and of what was called “actually existing socialism.” In doing so, I hope to lay the foundation for a different, more powerful critical analysis of the capitalist social formation, one adequate to the late twentieth century.

I shall attempt to develop such an understanding of capitalism by separating conceptually, on the basis of Marx's analysis, the fundamental core of capitalism from its nineteenth-century forms. Doing so, however, calls into question many basic presuppositions of traditional Marxist interpretations; for example, I do not analyze capitalism primarily in terms of private ownership of the means of production, or in terms of the market.