Economic determination in Marxism operates through how levels combine, not their inner content

Evidence

Hence, the classical problem for Marxism—the problem of determinancy of the structure, the “determination in the last instance by the economic” (which distinguishes Marxism from other types of social scientific explanation)—is itself redefined as a problem of “articulation.” What is “determined” is not the inner form and appearance of each level, but the mode of combination and the placing of each instance in an articulated relation to the other elements. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 618

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates the key Althusserian redefinition: ‘determination in the last instance by the economic’ becomes a matter of articulation, not direct expression.
• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely paradigm-shifting move — recasting the core Marxist causality claim so the economic determines arrangement but not content, preserving complexity while keeping the causal primacy.
• XREF: connects to: Marxist dialectic holds one final determination against multiple interpenetrating historical determinations. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 470