Border-Marxisms and Historical Materialism : Untimely Encounters

Aditya Nigam

ISBN 10: 3031228944 / ISBN 13: 9783031228940

Published by Springer International Publishing, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - This book engages with the diverse traditions within non-Western Marxisms, as they emerge across the Global South, positioning itself against calls for a 'pure' Marxism. The author views Marxism as a conceptual 'field,' similar to electromagnetic or gravitational fields, where bodies and objects impact other bodies and objects without necessarily coming in contact with them. So too, in the 'field' of Marxism, people behave in specific ways and deploy languages and concepts with their own specific inflections and accents. While rejecting the view of Marxism as an inherently European and fully-formed doctrine that is corrupted by contact with alien contexts, Nigam simultaneously acknowledges the residual force of certain elements of the theory and the gravitational pull that the authoritative figures continue to have on the evolution of the field in non-Western contexts. He argues that since a large part of Marxism's earthly journey was undertaken in the Global South, it is that experience that needs to be rendered legible, by setting aside the conceptual lens of Western Marxism that repeatedly misreads such experience. Ultimately, the book invites a fruitful and challenging re-examination of a variety of phenomena arising from the contemporaneous co-existence of pre-capitalist and capitalist social relations that have been an inextricable part of the majority of the world-what the author terms 'untimely encounters.'.

Seller Inventory # 9783031228940

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Border-Marxisms and Historical Materialism : Untimely Encounters
• Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Springer Nature Switzerland
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3031228944
• ISBN 13: 9783031228940
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 216W x 153H x 20D millimeters 216 millimeters width by 153 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 483 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book engages with the diverse traditions within non-Western Marxisms, as they emerge across the Global South, positioning itself against calls for a “pure” Marxism. The author views Marxism as a conceptual “field,” similar to electromagnetic or gravitational fields, where bodies and objects impact other bodies and objects without necessarily coming in contact with them. So too, in the “field” of Marxism, people behave in specific ways and deploy languages and concepts with their own specific inflections and accents. While rejecting the view of Marxism as an inherently European and fully-formed doctrine that is corrupted by contact with alien contexts, Nigam simultaneously acknowledges the residual force of certain elements of the theory and the gravitational pull that the authoritative figures continue to have on the evolution of the field in non-Western contexts. He argues that since a large part of Marxism’s earthly journey was undertaken in the Global South, it is that experience that needs to be rendered legible, by setting aside the conceptual lens of Western Marxism that repeatedly misreads such experience. Ultimately, the book invites a fruitful and challenging re-examination of a variety of phenomena arising from the contemporaneous co-existence of pre-capitalist and capitalist social relations that have been an inextricable part of the majority of the world―what the author terms “untimely encounters.”

About the Author

Aditya Nigam was formerly Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India.