Marx and the Politics of Need

Marx and the Politics of Need challenges one of the most pervasive habits in contemporary political theory and practice: treating needs as moral facts that sit outside of our politics, and which can be used to judge it. Against this depoliticising impulse, George Boss offers a provocative re-reading of Marx's writings on need.

George Boss is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, UK.

1 Introduction 2 The theory of need has a political problem 3 Consciousness is a social product, even for philosophers 4 Performing capitalism, performing need 5 The needs of wage-labour 6 Conclusion: Re-presenting needs all over again