ABSTRACT
In our discussion of Marx’s political economy we often referred to the ‘structure’ of the capitalist mode of production, and to the underlying structure and structural mechanisms of different modes. Indeed, Marx’s realist method is clearly displayed in his structural analysis of different modes of production present in various social formations. A realist social science will typically involve a structural analysis. However, the use of the term ‘structure’ or ‘social structure’ does not mean that the writer in question adopts a realist position in the social sciences. There are many different structural and structuralist methods and theories: for example, Chomskyan linguistics, structural-functionalism in anthropology, Marxist structuralism, Lévi-Straussian and French structuralism, and so on. It has been argued however, that there is a single structuralist method appropriate to all fields of at least human study,1 from anthropology to literature, from politics to linguistics. But this view has been questioned by others who argue that there are only specific structural theories found within the context of different disciplines, such as linguistics or anthropology; there is no single structuralist method to analyse and evaluate.2
