From grand narrative to pluralist alternatives : new perspectives on Marx and Marxism

The year 2017 will mark not only 150 years since the publication of the first volume of Marx's Capital, but also the centenary of Russia's 'revolution against Capital' (Gramsci 1994). While the theoretical and political significance of both have waned dramatically in recent decades, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the decline of 'Western Marxism', debate continues over the extent to which Marx and Marxism can provide avenues towards more democratic, egalitarian societies. While some issues have remained focal since the early years of the 20th century (most notably, the schism between social-democratic and revolutionary Marxist traditions), new points of theoretical and political contestation have appeared in recent decades. With the flourishing of explicitly post-Marxist theoretical perspectives and of social movements in which class issues have assumed at most minor importance, the continuing relevance of Marx, Marxism and a politics organised around class conflict has often been viewed as marginal. During capitalism's most recent crisis there has been some resurgence in interest in Marx himself as a theorist of economic crisis (e.g. Schuman 2013). Nonetheless, the future of Marxism, as the grandest of 'grand narratives' in an era more characterised by 'single-issue' political mobilisation, seems fragile and uncertain.