hey comrades, I am going to write my dissertation on Marx and Marxism and I'd appreciate some input from fellow Marxists on what topics could be interesting to write about
So basically how non-ableist being creates a counter view about normalcy and utility?
Pick a chapter in volume 2 and argue it's the key to understanding the rest of Marx. It'll make you look incredibly well read and no one reads vol 2 so they won't be able to challenge yoy
Piss everyone off by claiming that the transformation problem can be solved by reading "value" as a metaphysical category
How are you writing a dissertation and needing to ask for ideas? Is this for a PhD program?
Undergrad 10k report so Im not sure if dissertation is the right word but my college has been calling it that
It would not be. This post makes much more sense now.
Like the other poster said it depends on the discipline, but for me I always think the most interesting thing is to try and integrate multiple social theories along their overlapping lines. Rather than trying to write up an overview of the entirety of Marxist thought you'd probably be better off grabbing a smaller idea and applying it. I study social movements which has a lot of "practical" theories of social action whereas things like Marxist theories are considered too large-scale to be thought of as practical for predicting individual level action. I've found a lot of purchase integrating Marxist meta-theoretical principles into the practical theories that predict for an individual's participation in social movements.
How about the gig economy? I've been looking and haven't been able to find any explicitly Marxist analysis' of the rise of the gig economy. If you're into marxian/marxist economics that could be really interesting.
you could really do some interesting stuff making some comparisons and contrasts between the gig economy and his descriptions of home or cottage industry
Write about how Marx was fashionable and taken seriously - and then wasn't - and now is again
At the end of his life Marx was investigating the colonial and settler-caused genocide of native americans. This would also open further avenues of study into decolonial work, alternatives to capitalism, etc.
I would write about Coulthard and Federici's reframing of primitive accumulation as ongoing and use it to analysize a modern dispossession.
I'd read a paper that looks at primitive accumulation during the COVID pandemic. The way lockdowns have been implemented in the US + the CARES Act have led to massive accumulation of wealth in Tech & Finance monopolies. A deeper dive into the "how" would be interesting.
What is your field of study? That might change quite a bit the answers. However depending on what you want to do I found Marx's technique interesting.
Exzerpieren als Basis / creating excerpts as basis for text work by Marx
I also found interesting what kind of media the library of London had when Marx worked there, therefore which fundus of sources he used.
Furthermore I am quite intrigued about timelines of when Marx was where and who else was there during that time (mostly interested in that till 1850, even more so his years of study in Berlin, and maybe around the time 'the Capital' was published).
Then I am also interested in the texts that were produced by groups who had Marx as member.
Besides that I am quite fond of anthropological Marxist value terms e.g. David Graeber, etc.
I am intrigued in how Marxism is taught in China.
What is your favorite subfield in political science? Do you like to write/learn about domestic political structures and institutions, international comparative policy analysis, political philosophy, or international relations? From there I can help you whittle down a topic
political philosophy, up until now my main focus of study has been political theory, Ive already written essays on Marx and have a good understanding of his philosphy
Okay cool, so an interesting way to apply political philosophy in a big 40 page paper is to compare governments on the basis of their foundational philosophy. For the United States, you have Montesquieu and Locke, for socialist countries, you have Marx and Engles.
Comparing what Montesquieu/Locke and what Marx/Engles thought about 3 to 5 different things (individualism vs collectivism, free markets vs planned economies, republics vs bottom up democracy) and applying that to how the countries operate can yield a lot of content and great analysis.
Another approach could be evaluating the evolution of marxist thought throughout the 20th century, focusing thought leaders like Lenin, Mao, and Fanon and exploring the effects of their ideas through the revolutions they inspired or led.
I actually think it'd be more interesting to plot the change in what those foundations are considered to be over time. For example the political theorists in the US in the first few decades of the 20th century completely rewrote what they considered foundational, like Locke is relatively minor till that period. Check out American political development like Gunnell's archeology of American liberalism or aziz Rana's the two faces of American freedom. That is if one wanted to write about Locke and such.
Political science, particularly political theory. Ive already written essays on Marx IE Marx Vs Locke's theory of property, essays on Populism in the 21st century and as someone who identifies as a Marxist Ive just read a decent bit of theory just for myself
