Marx and the Politics of Need

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-87993-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Critiques and Alternatives to Capitalism

Marx and the Politics of Need challenges one of the most pervasive habits in contemporary political theory and practice: treating needs as moral facts that sit outside of our politics, and which can be used to judge it. Against this depoliticising impulse, George Boss offers a provocative re-reading of Marx’s writings on need, interpreting them not as didactic statements of an abstract philosophy, but as subversive interventions and provocations inseparable from his radical political activism.

Re-read in this way, those writings take on new, hitherto unexplored dimensions. Building on them, Boss develops a distinctive Marxian framework that recasts needs as constitutively political, exposing the conflicts, stakes, and possibilities that shape how needs are defined, contested, and met. The result is a fresh, deeply political perspective on human need at a time when the politics of need is both increasingly urgent and increasingly unruly. Opening up what had become ossified and closed down in contemporary social thought, the book thus fashions new opportunities for radical political agency and portends new social possibilities.

As such, it will appeal to scholars of politics, sociology, and philosophy exploring Marxist thought, economic justice, and the political dimensions of human need.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Boss, George

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction  2. The theory of need has a political problem  3. Consciousness is a social product, even for philosophers  4. Performing capitalism, performing need  5. The needs of wage-labour  6. Conclusion: Re-presenting needs all over again

Über Autor(innen)

George Boss is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, UK.