ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents overview of key concepts covered in subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a sustained critique of Marxist political theory, since that has been the most influential theoretical tradition during the last two decades. Cottrell proposes the Marxism that is defined neither in terms of its 'materialism', nor in terms of any fundamental truths. The Marxism is the product of the political or 'discursive' priority given to 'the transformation of social relations in the direction of socialism'. A teleological discourse is one containing some conceptual principle of hierarchical ordering whereby social forms may be regarded as a realization or expression of their position in a conceptual structure. Karl Marx's Preface outlines the historical processes to which ontologically defined objects are to be subjected, the conflict between forces and relations of production and its inevitable effects.
