Theories of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and Subjection. By Jan Rehmann.

Authors

  • Robert Carley

Abstract

Jan Rehmann’s Theories of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and Subjection is a
study of the concept of ideology rooted in the Marxist tradition. The book also
includes several interlocutions, outside of the Marxist tradition, such as Austrian
economic theories and their forms of neoliberal expression, Michel Foucault’s
concept of “biopower” and “governmentality,” as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts
of field, habitus, and symbolic violence. It also includes a critical appraisal of
the Projekt Ideologietheorie (PIT) with which Rehmann is associated. Rehmann’s
book is meticulously researched. He situates ideology theory’s key schools and
thinkers historiographically, through the logic of argumentation, and empirically.
Rehmann approaches ideology theory through a critical lens; his evaluative framework
considers how and to what extent theories of ideology foreclose the possibility
of revolutionary transformation.

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Published

2016-08-02