ABSTRACT
A lot of younger thinkers, Castells included, wanted to be Marxists, yet wanted their Marxism formalized, relevant to a shifting political and social climate. Herein
114 Althusser spoke loudly. He, after all, provided coherence and form, offered a framework , an analytical tool. With an Althusserian approach, Marxism could somehow
be utilized, could be politicoeconomic while refraining from economism."On the theoret ical plane," wrot e Castelis in his preface to the English edition of The Urban Question, "I have prop osed an adaptation of Marxist concepts to the urban sphere, using in parti cular the reading of Marx given by the French philosopher Louis Althusser," Castells went to Marxism because "we had to answer questions linked to topics such as social classes, change, struggle, revolt, contradiction , conflict, politics"; Castells went to Althusser because, he felt, any new Marxist theoretical position "that is not anchored in concrete analysis is redundant.'"
