A conjuncture fuses distinct contradictions of different tempos

Evidence

The idea that we should define a conjuncture as the coming together of often distinct though related contradictions, moving according to different tempos, but condensed in the same historical moment, is foreign to this approach. The name of Lenin is frequently and reverently invoked in these circles. Yet the approach precisely neglects Lenin’s graphic reminder that 1917 was “an extremely unique historical situation,” in which “absolutely dissimilar currents, absolutely heterogeneous class interests, absolutely contrary political and social strivings have merged … in a strikingly ‘harmonious’ manner.” — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1094

Such arguments are especially characteristic of a certain hard-headed response from the “hard” Left. All this analysis, it is implied, is unnecessary. The committed will not waste time on such speculations, but get on with the job of “engaging in the real struggle.” In fact, this last is a position which neglects everything that is specific and particular to this historical conjuncture. It is predicated on the view that a social formation is a simple structure, in which economic conditions will be immediately, transparently, and indifferently translated onto the political and ideological stage. If you operate on the “determining level,” then all the other pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. The idea that we should define a conjuncture as the coming together of often distinct though related contradictions, moving according to different tempos, but condensed in the same historical moment, is foreign to this approach. The name of Lenin is frequently and reverently invoked in these circles. Yet the approach precisely neglects Lenin’s graphic reminder that 1917 was “an extremely unique historical situation,” in which “absolutely dissimilar currents, absolutely heterogeneous class interests, absolutely contrary political and social strivings have merged … in a strikingly ‘harmonious’ manner.” 1 Above all, it takes for granted what needs to be explained, and is in no sense simple or obvious: namely, how a capitalist economic recession (economic), presided over by a social-democratic party with mass working-class support and organized depth in the trade unions (politically), is “lived” by increasing numbers of people through the themes and representations (ideologically) of a virulent, emergent “petty-bourgeois” ideology. These contradictory features of the present crisis are absorbed into some orthodox analyses only at considerable cost. The ideology of the radical Right is less an “expression” of economic recession than the recession’s condition of existence. Ideological factors have effects on and for the social formation as a whole—including effects on the economic crisis itself and how it is likely to be politically resolved. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1094

Categorization

• DEFINE: Hall’s working definition of ‘conjuncture’—contrasted with the simple structure view that economic conditions translate transparently into politics.
• XREF: The conjunctural method becomes the engine of Hall’s later analyses, including the Thatcherism essays in this book. — connects to: Historical conjunctures are overdetermined accumulations of heterogeneous contradictions; A conjuncture is a period fused by contradictions into crisis with no fixed outcome; Contradictory perceptions can both be true simultaneously — , A Year of World Stories, 4077 (+8 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The inversion that a Right-wing ideology is not the recession’s expression but its ‘condition of existence’ is a paradigm-level, counterintuitive theoretical claim.
• SEED: An essay angle: applying Hall’s conjunctural method to a contemporary crisis to show why ideology is not epiphenomenal to economic downturn.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1094

Broader Connections

• Articulation lets distinct practices with different contradictions be thought together. #expands (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 200
• Expressive orientations stabilize the present while instrumental ones defer to the future #complicates (0.75)
• The discursive turn requires reintroducing the subject as non-unitary and internally contradictory #corroborates (0.70)