RELATIVE AUTONOMY
Capitalism
Relative autonomy is a theory of state power
based on Marxist ideas. Relative autonomy perspective assumes that the state can and does
play a limited independent role in the maintenance and stabilization of capitalist society.
Relative autonomy differs from pluralism in
viewing state power as strongly constrained by the ideological and structural
characteristics of capitalist society.
On the Concept of Relative Autonomy in Educational
Theory
Christer Fritzell, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1987), pp.
23-35
Abstract: In an effort to contribute to the further development of educational relative
autonomy theory, this article raises a few basic issues with regard to the relationships
between the internal structuring of schooling and educational functions of social
reproduction and change. The concepts of positive, negative and critical correspondence
are introduced in order to analyse different forms of structuring in schooling in relation
to the commodity form of economic production. The historical significance of different
forms of correspondence is touched upon, and the potentials of critical correspondence
between schooling within the State and the commodity form are discussed in terms of a
contradiction between the functions of efficient accumulation and legitimation. -
jstor.org
Commodity Form and Legal Form: An Essay on the
"Relative Autonomy" of the Law
Isaac D. Balbus, Law & Society Review, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Winter,
1977)doi:10.2307/3053132
Abstract: After a good deal of thought I have decided not to respond directly to Professor
Trubek's exhaustive review of The Dialectics of Legal Repression, but will rather leave it
to readers of my book to determine for themselves the adequacy of his description,
analysis, and evaluation of the material contained therein. However, insofar as Professor
Trubek also refers briefly in his essay to my "more recent," and until now
unpublished, work, it seems appropriate to present a sample of this work, especially since
Trubek himself argues that it entails a "major refinement" which "allows
Balbus to explain what remains unexplained in The Dialectics." Indeed, in certain
respects the following essay constitutes an autocritique of the theoretical analysis in my
book, and a comparison of the two will thus permit the reader to assess indirectly the
extent of my agreement with Trubek's critique. At the same time, what follows also
constitutes an implicit and, at times explicit, critique of Trubek's own effort to
elaborate and apply an alternative to my position, the effort he calls "critical
social thought about law." - jstor.org
Relative Autonomy Reconstructed. Revised. -
Reynolds, Jim
Abstract: The British school system has relative autonomy, and therefore, could be
potentially transformative--used to change existing economic and social relations. The
correspondence thesis, which states that the schools perpetuate existing capitalist
economic and social relations and serve as agents of reproduction, was the dominant
paradigm of the last decade within the British sociology of education. This thesis has
been bitterly contested, and, in recent years, substantially modified. Four developments
within British social science over the last decade suggest a form of relative autonomy
that grants considerable freedom to the educational system within British society to act
either in a reproductive or transformative fashion. The four developments are: (1) the
lack of fit between what the educational system produces and the needs of the British
economic structure, (2) recent findings in social policy studies, (3) the partial
penetration of capitalism in Britain, and (4) the independence of the school. The relative
autonomy theory may be a helpful method by which Marxists may cope with the empirical
reality of the British educational system/economy relationship. It suggests not that
humans are either free or determined, but that there are both determinations and freedoms.
It may be the organizing framework around which to build an empirically valid,
intellectually coherent, and policy relevant British sociology of education. - eric.ed.gov
The Relative Autonomy of Schools and Educational Interventions for Substance Abuse
Prevention, Sex Education, and Gender Stereotyping.
Shamai, Shmuel; Coambs, Robert B., Adolescence, v27 n108 p757-70 Win 1992
Abstract: Evaluates drug abuse prevention programs, sex education programs, and programs
to change gender stereotypes in schools using theoretical framework of critical sociology
of education. Notes that all types of programs had limited effectiveness. Concludes that
schools appear unable to change behaviors prevalent in culture because both students and
schools are strongly influenced by culture. (Author/NB) - eric.ed.gov
Marxism and economic determination: clarification and defence of an
"old-fashioned" principle - Paul Wetherly, Leeds Metropolitan
University, Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 33, No. 3, 273-279 (2001) © 2001
Union for Radical Political Economics
This paper clarifies and defends economic determination as a defining principle of
explanation of Marxist political economy and state theory. Economic determination is a
principle of causation or explanation which involves the claim that "politics"
is "explained" by "economics" in a relevant sense of those three
terms. This principle is refined by clarifying the meaning of each of these terms,
particularly focusing on "determination." A defense is mounted on theoretical
grounds by showing that Jessop's critique of "reductionism" and related argument
for "contingency" does not succeed. Economic determination is defined as a
strong tendency but consistent with a notion of the relative autonomy of the state. -
rrp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/3/273
ldeology, determinism and relative autonomy - by Michael Rosenthal - Extract
From Jump Cut, no. 17, April 1978, copyright Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media,
1978, 2005
One of the key problems confronting Marxist film theory, as well as Marxist aesthetics in
general, is the status of ideology as a determined product of social, and specifically
economic, relations. It is a fundamental and unavoidable premise of any Marxist enquiry
that ideology — the "consciousness" of people in society and the material
cultural products in which this consciousness is embedded - is, in fact, determined.
Drawing from Engel's letters, Althusser argues that the various superstructures (law,
politics, ideology) are characterized by a "relative autonomy" from the
base.
In consequence, our understanding of economic determination (which is a condition for an
understanding of autonomy) remains in essence the same as in "vulgar
determinism," while relative autonomy becomes a sort of ongoing exception. That is,
we continue to see the economic base as mission control, which beams out commands to
passive agents in the superstructures. With our magic protective shield of relative
autonomy, we are safe from these commands until they catch up with us in the dreaded last
instance. And, as Althusser somewhat cryptically assures us, "the lonely hour of the
last instance never arrives."
Thus, although we can describe films like GODFATHER II or CHINATOWN as "critiques of
capitalism" because of their relative autonomy, they remain determined by capitalist
economic relations, in the "last instance." The character of that determination,
piled onto the last instance, remains a mystery. Furthermore, we often present it as some
kind of antithesis of relative autonomy, as if it were a version of the antithesis of
"freedom" and "necessity." - ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/
JC17folder/RelativeAutonomy.html
RELATIVE AUTONOMY OF THE CENTRAL BANK
Tobias M. C. Asser - imf.org/external/np/leg/sem/2002/cdmfl/eng/asser.pdf
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