Marxist themes II: Materialism
New materialism
• Things, also human beings are
made of matter: they are
mixtures of mineral, vegetable
and synthetic materials.

• Both the garment and the
wearer’s body are made of
materials.

• Matter is not merely raw and
inert stuff on which humans act,
but is itself alive and acting.
Production
• The key mistake of the mode of
production model was to define
‘production’ simply as the
production of material objects.

• The adequate theory of
‘production’ would have to give
equal place to the production of
people and social relations 

• The actions involved in the
production of cultural objects
are material practices.
Reproduction
• The role of reproductive labour
and biological forms of
reproduction 

• Individuals live a meaningful
relation to their conditions of
existence. 

• Misrecognition: the individual
must recognize itself as a
subject in ideological
discourse.
The capitalist mode of
production
• The unlimited need for growth:

• Profit

• The wage labor.

• Money

• Distinction between homes and
workplaces:

• Commodities
David Graeber
„The corporate form cut away from existence: the idea that
capitalist enterprises were immortal persons free of the need to
be born, marry or die.“