Conjunctural analysis of concrete situations defines mature Marxist method

Evidence

Gramsci’s work remains, of course, theoretically underdeveloped: the concepts are often in what Althussereans would call their “practical” state: they are hardly ever “pure”—never thoroughly or radically dismembered from their location within specific conjunctures. But if Lenin was correct to argue that what a Marxist analysis pointed to as its proper conclusion was the “concrete analysis of a concrete situation”—in other words, precisely, the analysis of conjunctures—then it is Lenin himself, first, and Gramsci immediately behind who—in so far as such an analysis embraces the superstructures—lead the way. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 529

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines conjuncture as the concrete analysis of a concrete situation, and contrasts Gramsci’s ‘practical-state’ concepts (embedded in specific conjunctures) with Althusserian ‘pure’ concepts.
• XREF: Sets up the core Gramscian tool — conjunctural analysis — that recurs throughout Stuart Hall’s essays on Thatcherism and neoliberalism.