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This thesis explores the ways in which two decades of socialisation in the socialist education system of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) left their mark on the people growing up there from 1958 to 1978. The centre of investigation is the enigmatic 'socialist personality', an ideal human being cast from a mould rich in Marxist-Leninist principles. The 'socialist personality' was meant to have an all-round education of 'head, heart and hand' and to possess a wide range of virtues which took their cue from societal requirements rather than individual interests. The 'subjects' under investigation are children and young people up to the age of eighteen, whose experiences both within the education system and beyond are being explored. With this thesis I aim to show that between the project of turning children into 'socialist personalities' and its implementation at the grassroots stood human nature. It is my contention that despite the regime's claim to total control of education and socialisation, the practical execution of this experiment in social engineering had its limits. It collided with young people's individuality and self-determination, as well as with influences of a 'parallel education system' that often, but not always, had a different set of values: the family, peers, the Churches, and the Western lifestyle model just across the border. Yet whilst the great majority of young people were immune to the inculcation of certain aspects of education and socialisation (notably politicisation and militarisation), they did internalise a number of 'good' socialist values (for example love of peace, solidarity and helpfulness) during their formative years. At the end of the 1970s, the 'end products' of the GDR education system, whilst not resembling the envisaged 'socialist personality', showed nevertheless traits of a 'new kind of human being'.

Working with an approach to the interpretation and analysis of life stories based in the Marxist tradition this study looks at the lives of six teachers of literacy to adults who live and work on The Isle of Thanet in Kent. The study reviews points of divergence between postmodern theories based within a narrative constructionist approach to the interpretation of life stories and a Marxist approach. A case is made for a Marxist approach to life story work being both valid and informative. The first part of the study looks at considerations of methodology as these affect life story work in general and Marxist life story work in particular. Some work from Goethe and Balza is presented to show how Marx's own scientific worldview grew out of wider artistic and scientific traditions beyond those with which it is usually associated. Attention is drawn to the relationship between Marxism and humanism and how both can be brought together to provide a fertile and humane form of social science. The life stories of the six teachers are presented in a form agreed to by those whose stories are told. Three themes emerging from the stories are selected by the researcher for further investigation. These themes are class and identity, managerialism, and place. Each of these three themes is analysed to show the relationship of the six life stories to Marxism. On this basis the argument is then put forward that Marxism itself has an important contribution to make to the academic study of life stories. This final argument forms the substance of the concluding chapter.

[by] A. Ross Johnson. / Based on the author's thesis, Columbia. / Bibliography: p. [245]-264.

This thesis offers a systematic account of Žižek’s dialectical materialist Marxism that follows the development of his work from his initial Lacanian critique of Marxism and Stalinist totalitarianism, to his attempt to develop a new form of Communist politics including a conception of a Communist utopia. The core and overarching argument of this thesis is that Žižek develops his positions in response to three challenges that he confronts after the limitations of his previous radical democratic politics become evident. These are: an alternative to traditional Marxism and liberal democracy that continues to protect against repeating the errors of the former; an analysis of late-capitalism at libidinal, political and economic levels to explain new forms of ideology, the limitations of liberal democratic politics, and the continuing role of capitalism and class in our contemporary world; and, the reformulation of the Lacanian category of the Real in order to overcome the deadlock of the opposition between das Ding and lack and the political conservatism it produces. In the analysis of Žižek’s response to these challenges, I examine the tension that emerges between the Lacanian and Marxist dimensions of Žižek’s dialectical materialism and how he manages this tension in order to avoid returning to the problems associated with traditional Marxism.

The diversity of the proletariat during the final two decades of the 20th century reached a point where traditional socialist and communist parties could not represent all sections of the working class. Moreover, the development of social movements other than the working class after the 1960s further sidelined traditional parties. The anti-capitalist movements in the 1970s and 1980s were looking for new political formations. This work is an effort to study the synthesis of the traditional vanguard socialist party and spontaneous working class movements with other social groups. The multi-tendency socialist organisation that formed in many countries after 1980 has its roots in the Marxist theories of earlier epochs. It is a mass organisation based on the direct initiatives of activists of all social movements springing from below. Its internal relations are not hierarchical but based on the horizontal relations between organs. This is an organisation belonging to both civil society and political society. This study does not suggest that the era for a vanguard Leninist party is completely over. In some dictatorial societies a centralised party is the most appropriate political method of organising workers and the poor, and fighting oppression and censorship. After the success of a political revolution such a party would face the question of coalition and cooperation with other progressive forces. Therefore in the transitional epoch of the early 21st century both traditional types of vanguard parties and multi-tendency organisations coexist. The most successful socialist multi-tendency organisation is the one in which the communists and radical socialists are able to maintain the continuity of the organisation and influence a considerable section of the working class and poor. Though the formations of multi-tendency organisations have experienced setbacks in some countries those setbacks do not undermine their achievements in Latin America. The multi-tendency socialist organisation is the only viable alternative to the present capitalist system.