Blackwell Reference Online

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According to most twentieth-century understandings of M arxism , history can be periodized into different modes of production, each with its own internal dialectic of class struggle. This ‘materialist conception’ of history was outlined in the German Ideology (Marx and Engels, 1845–6) and developed in subsequent works by both Marx and Engels, although they did not always use the concept of a mode of production in this way. In the twentieth century, it became the central concept of what has become known as ‘dialectical materialism’, adherence to some version of which continues to distinguish Marxist from other forms of social thought (see M aterialism ). According to this view of history, the fundamental difference between types of society occurs in the way production takes place. Any society's ‘mode of production’ consists of two elements: its forces and its relations of production. The forces of production refer to society's productive capabilities, not just in a technological but also in a social sense, and include not only material means of production but also human abilities both physical and conceptual. The relations of production refer to the social relations under which production is organized: how resources and labour are allocated, how the labour process is organized and how products are distributed. It is the specific combination of both forces and relations of production ... log in or subscribe to read full text