Open research questions in Political Economy and Marxism
1,369 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 11,874 Political Economy and Marxism papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
” However, it remains unclear how, exactly, capital and ascriptive difference are articulated and why particular articulations of race, gender, and capital remain so enduring.
Revisiting the “Articulation” of Capital and Difference: Louis Althusser, Stuart Hall, and the Built Environment · 2026 · DOIIt is of course ex- tremely difficult to study the "second economy" in the socialist bloc: official sources are sparse to nonexistent, and interviewing emigres is about the only research strategy for scholars who wish to rise above speculation and anecdote.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the evolution of economic theory and its relation to labour issues. The paper highlights the need to re-examine the status of economic theory in relation to labour issues.
The paper identifies the challenge of understanding the structural limits of paternalistic governance. The paper highlights the challenge of considering consumer needs in economic policy-making. The paper notes the challenge of analyzing the systemic logic of socialist consumption.
Socialist Consumption Revisited: Paternalistic Policies and Consumer Needs during the Polish Crisis · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in understanding the political economy of consumption in socialist Poland. The paper highlights the need to analyze the systemic logic of socialist consumption and the late 1970s debates on needs and rational consumption.
Socialist Consumption Revisited: Paternalistic Policies and Consumer Needs during the Polish Crisis · 2026 · DOIA gap is revealed between dominant macroeconomic narratives and everyday experiences of being dispossessed. The study identifies a lack of understanding of the emotional and social dimensions of economic transformation. The article highlights the need to consider the moral economy of self-management and workers' understanding of how they built their factories and communities.
FROM SELF-MANAGEMENT TO POSTSOCIALISM: INDUSTRIAL WORKERS’ SILENCED EXPERIENCES OF DISPOSSESSION IN SLOVENIA · 2026 · DOIThe paper suggests the need for further research on the concept of technofascism. It highlights the importance of analyzing the implications of technofascism for democratic societies. The paper suggests the need for research on resistance and mobilization against authoritarianism.
Les racines idéologiques du technofascisme: entre accélérationnisme néoréactionnaire et révolution papillon · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the convergence of Silicon Valley elites and authoritarian populism. It highlights the need for further research on the implications of technofascism for democratic societies.
Les racines idéologiques du technofascisme: entre accélérationnisme néoréactionnaire et révolution papillon · 2026 · DOIHubert Henry Harrison (1883–1927) was an early twentieth-century writer who engaged Marxist theoreticians and conventional American sociological theory in his writings, but he remains unknown to social theorists and histories of American social science.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the relationship between general laws of evolution and internal laws of evolution within societies. The paper notes that the founders of social sciences sought to identify laws specific to a given type of society, while Bernard Lahire focuses on universally valid laws.
Lois d’évolution générales et lois d’évolution interne des sociétés: Une lecture croisée de Bernard Lahire et Alain Testart · 2026 · DOIThere is a lack of criticism of Bloch's work in the Czech environment. The article identifies a need to understand the differences between Bloch's conception of Marxism and Soviet-type Marxism.
Future research could explore the implications of simulacrum for our understanding of authenticity. The author suggests that further analysis of postmodern theory is necessary for developing a critical understanding of contemporary society.
When Simulacrum Reigns Supreme: Andrei Codrescu’s Wakefield and the Utopia of Living Authentically · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the understanding of authenticity in a postmodern world. The author argues that existing theories of authenticity are inadequate for navigating contemporary society.
When Simulacrum Reigns Supreme: Andrei Codrescu’s Wakefield and the Utopia of Living Authentically · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the Catholic approach towards Marxism. The discussion on Marxism was not only aimed at Marxism but also at classical liberalism.
Future research should explore the implications of Malthus' concept of effective demand for economic policy and decision-making. The study suggests that further analysis of the Malthusian scheme and its implications for distribution and development is needed.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of Malthus' concept of effective demand and its role in the capitalist logic of unequal exchange. The study highlights the need for a deeper analysis of the relationship between social structure and balanced development.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the philosophical and legal basis of sustainable development. The paper highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of the concept of solidarism in the context of sustainable development.
Solidarność i zrównoważony rozwój: współczesna interpretacja doktryny solidaryzmu Léona Bourgeois · 2026 · DOIFuture research could explore the development of a socialism from below-inspired alternative to conventional anthropology textbooks. Further study could examine the implications of this alternative for social justice and class struggle movements.
Contemplating Capitalism: How Introductory Anthropology Texts Depoliticize Class, Oppression, and the Climate · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the conventional anthropology textbooks, specifically their lack of rigorous materialist analysis. The author argues that this gap has significant implications for social theory and practical politics.
Contemplating Capitalism: How Introductory Anthropology Texts Depoliticize Class, Oppression, and the Climate · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in Ádám Takács's paper regarding the omission of certain papers. The paper argues that the restriction to outputs in Hungarian is incoherent.
From Marx to Kant? A Note on Ádám Takács’s paper “The antinomies of man and the detotalization of thinking: escaping from Marxism towards Kant in Hungarian philosophy in the 1970–1980s,” Studies in East European Thought, September, 2025 · 2026 · DOIThere are many factors that motivate a reading and re-reading of Das Kapital. The book aims to provide a useful supplementary guide to the dense volume.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how value is created in networks. It argues that the current understanding of value creation is based on a flawed premise that every transaction has two sides that cancel.
Where Value Is Created - Marx's Circulation Problem, the Railway, and the Emergence of Information Exchange · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the understanding of Quesnay's theory of value, which is often considered underdeveloped. The author notes that Quesnay's theory is often misunderstood or misrepresented in the literature.
The paper identifies the challenge of articulating a utopian horizon that truly transcends the proclaimed end-of-history. It also highlights the difficulty of balancing the need for institutional design with the risk of reproducing capitalist logics. The paper notes the challenge of navigating the tension between utopianism and Marxist conceptions of social relations.
The paper identifies a gap in the discussion on utopia, particularly in the context of neoliberal capitalism and the far right's increasing popularity. It argues that the current debate on utopia may be limited by its failure to articulate a horizon that truly transcends the proclaimed end-of-history.
Most-cited papers in Political Economy and Marxism
- Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital · American Journal of Sociology · 1988 · 21,104 citations
- Neoliberalizing Space · Antipode · 2002 · 3,073 citations
- The New Spirit of Capitalism · International Journal of Politics Culture and Society · 2005 · 1,875 citations
- Production, Consumption, Prosumption · Journal of Consumer Culture · 2010 · 1,548 citations
- Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology · American Journal of Sociology · 1999 · 965 citations
- Toward a Theory of Revolution · American Sociological Review · 1962 · 873 citations
- The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis · Comparative Studies in Society and History · 1974 · 796 citations
- Vagabond Capitalism and the Necessity of Social Reproduction · Antipode · 2001 · 795 citations
- Economization, part 1: shifting attention from the economy towards processes of economization · Economy and Society · 2009 · 750 citations
- The Tragedy of the Anticommons: Property in the Transition from Marx to Markets · Harvard Law Review · 1998 · 742 citations
Most recent work
- Socially Necessary Scholarly Labor: A Critique of the Labor-Knowledge Ratio in Contemporary Depth-Architecture Scholarship · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
- The problem of knowledge in the Anthropocene · Globalizations · 2026
- Silvio Gesell: Beyond Left Versus Right · American Journal of Economics and Sociology · 2026
- Gesell: The Revolution Still Waiting to Happen Taking Stock of an Anarchistic Dream After 30 Years of Militancy · American Journal of Economics and Sociology · 2026
- Socialist Consumption Revisited: Paternalistic Policies and Consumer Needs during the Polish Crisis · The Historical Journal · 2026
- W. E. B. Du Bois and Economics: A Reappraisal · Journal of Economic Literature · 2026
- From Malthus to planetary boundaries: the genealogy of ‘carrying capacity’ as a political technology · Journal of Cultural Economy · 2026
- Beyond Transfers in Monetary Chains of Dependency: How Exchange Rates Enforce Unequal Exchange and Labor Super-Exploitation · Review of Radical Political Economics · 2026
- What Is a Radical Economist Doing in Mexico? · Review of Radical Political Economics · 2026
- Labour Relations and Relational Labour: Care, Ontology and Social Reproduction · Historical Materialism · 2026
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