Economic and Social History

Marx on Mondays is a reading group co-hosted by the Centre for the Study of Modern & Contemporary History and the Economic & Social Theory Hub of the Edinburgh Centre for Global History.

We meet every two weeks, working our way through a selection of texts at a pace comfortable enough to tease out their key ideas and how we relate to them. We will alternate between sections of Marx’s Capital Vol. 1 and readings relevant to the section written by other thinkers (including ourselves!). Capital is a famously daunting text, but by organising reading groups generations have gotten a lot out of it, personally, intellectually, and politically—this is our aim, and we're aided by a fantastically readable new translation available as an e-book through DiscoverEd. All are welcome, including undergraduate and postgraduate students, University of Edinburgh workers in any role (including non-academic staff), and anyone else who’s interested in joining. No prior knowledge of Marx or Marxism is necessary: the sessions are planned with the broadest range of understandings and experiences in mind.

Our focus is using Marx’s writings as a launch point for thinking about the world around us, in as open and relatable a manner as possible. We explicitly avoid dogmatic and scholastic approaches to reading Capital and focus instead on how the text helps us understand our studies, research, and working conditions, as well as how it speaks to us in creative, intimate, sexual, romantic, political and social parts of our everyday lives. We keep ‘Marxology’ to a minimum, except in so far as the development of Marx’s thinking, the broader Marxist tradition, and other political and economic understandings are relevant to understanding a particular section, concept, or common interpretation. We pay special attention to the implicit and explicit gaps in Marx’s analysis around gender, race and sexuality, and look to address these with readings from feminist, queer and de-/anti-colonial thinkers. We also welcome reflections and work-in-progress texts from reading group members that tie a particular section to their own experiences and research.

Each week one or two members lead the session, providing a short introduction, clarifying some key concepts, and providing some framing questions. The majority of the two hours is then taken up with open discussion, which can go in whatever direction we feel the most fruitful.

We meet 3-5pm on Mondays, and refreshments are provided. Members are also encouraged to socialise after each session, if their work and care commitments allow. The sessions can also be hybrid, but we ask those joining online to let us know beforehand.

For more information, including the current reading and location, email the co-conveners Kate.Davison@ed.ac.uk and Nik.Matheou@ed.ac.uk.

Gender Equalities at Work is an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the University of Edinburgh, University College London, and The University of the West of England. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project will produce the first comprehensive history of the creation, trajectories, legacies and lived experiences of the Equal Pay Act 1970, and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (now integrated for GB in the Equality Act 2010) across the four nations of the UK, situated within European employment law and North American influences.

Project staff at Edinburgh: Prof Louise Jackson (HCA)

Project website: https://www.genderequalitiesat50.ed.ac.uk/about/

PI: Dr Emily Brownell (HCA)

Stories from the Substrate is a history of environment, science, health, and labor in East Africa that uses soil as its starting point. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Project website: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW007568%2F1