Abstract Thinking

In architecture discourse as in pretty much all Western academia, you never want to go “full Marxist”—not if you don’t want to be shunned from polite company. A full Marxist simply can’t be trusted to follow the disciplinary kayfabe. Under their withering materialist gaze, the disinterestedness and ethical autonomy that academic professions avow reveal very much interested ulterior motives. The full Marxist doesn’t respect the rules of the game and so must be treated as a potentially serious liability.

At the same time, if you’re not at least a little bit of a Marxist, it’s hard to position yourself as someone who takes the social stakes of architecture seriously. Without some Marx, how do you go about establishing your political bona fides? Sure, there are other angles, but everyone knows it’s about capitalism at the end of the day, and Marx remains by far the most effective critic. Therefore, the trick is to find ways to position yourself both inside and outside…