Frankfurt School theorists pioneered analysis of mass culture and working-class integration

Evidence

The Frankfurt School critical social theorists were among the first to analyze the new configurations of the state and economy in contemporary capitalist societies, to criticize the key roles of mass culture and communications, to analyze new modes of technology and forms of social control, to discuss new modes of socialization and the decline of the individual in mass society, and—vis-à-vis classical Marxism—to analyze and confront the consequences of the integration of the working classes and the stabilization of capitalism for the project of radical social change. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 22

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘integration of the working classes and stabilization of capitalism’ point connects to the reader’s underlying interest in how consumption functions as social control. — connects to: Frankfurt School members espoused proletarian solidarity while maintaining bourgeois lifestyles. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 171; The Frankfurt School’s mature critique reached its peak in the American exile period — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 771; Working-class movements accommodated capitalism while theory idealized a revolutionary proletariat (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Working-class movements accommodated capitalism while theory idealized a revolutionary proletariat #expands (0.80)
• Kirchheimer rejected mass culture as sufficient explanation of working-class passivity #complicates (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 473
• Mass culture and mass markets were integral to corporate capitalism’s ascendancy #exemplifies (0.75)
• Dismissing culture as class consciousness left Marxism unequipped for political forces #complicates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 363