Marxism & Design Activism

Marxism & Design Activism

Key Aims:

•To introduce a critical definition of ideology

•To introduce some of the basic principles of Marxist philosophy

•To explain the extent to which the media constitutes us as subjects

•To introduce ‘culture jamming’ and the idea of design activism

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however is to change it. – Karl Marx (1845)

Praxis – a unification of thought and action. A philosophy that’s realised in a political movement.

Marxism is :

            a political manifesto, leading to socialism, communism and the twentieth century conflicts between capital and labour

            a philosophical approach to the social sciences, which focuses on the role of society in determining human behaviour, based on concept of dialectical materialism

What is capitalism?

– The society that we live in (in the west) it a society where;

•Control of the means of production in private hands (few individuals make lots of money, everyone one else works to make them money)

•A market where labour power is bought and sold

•Production of commodities for sale

•Use of money as a means of exchange

•Competition / meritocracy -It’s a competition that makes us compete against each other for grades, money, hierarchy.

Primitive communism – Slave Society – Feudalism – Capitalism – Socialism – Communism