Adorno demanded theoretical mediation between superstructure and substructure in historical materialism.

Evidence

Above all, Adorno alleges ‘a lack of mediation between pragmatic substance and Marxian theory leading to a “materialistic-historiographical evocation” of socio-historical motifs’. The missing mediation of which Adorno writes is mediation between ‘conspicuous individual features from the realm of the superstructure’ and the ‘corresponding features of the substructure’ – a mediation that can only be achieved theoretically, however, ‘through the total social process’. … This means unpacking ‘the overall social and economic tendencies of the age’ rather than ‘imput[ing] to phenomena precisely the kind of spontaneity, tangibility and density which they have lost under capitalism’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 280

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s distinctive meaning of ‘mediation’ in the Marxian sense — total social process linking superstructure to substructure, not immediate correspondence.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno demanded Benjamin ground his commodity-soul thesis in Marx’s Capital chapter on fetishism. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 290; Adorno prioritized analyzing class struggle within dialectical materialism from 1936 onward — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 628; Horkheimer and Adorno rejected history as autonomous substance and grounded theory in social material — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 186 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Ideologies are material relations enacted through institutions and practices #expands (0.82) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 628
• Horkheimer and Adorno rejected history as autonomous substance and grounded theory in social material #corroborates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 186
• Adorno prioritized analyzing class struggle within dialectical materialism from 1936 onward #complicates (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 628