On the Gilded Genesis of Structure and Discourse
Tor Hammer & Magnus Granberg
What the paper says
Abstract This article contributes to a form-genetic critique of post-Marxist discourse theory. We argue that the concepts of sign value, equivalence and the empty signifier project the logic of the value-form onto social reality in general. We trace the roots of the concept of sign value in structural linguistics to the Lausanne school of marginalism and reconstruct its permutation in post-Marxist discourse theory as developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. We argue that the projection of the value-form through the key concepts of discourse theory relates to how discourse theory inherits the marginalist premises of structural linguistics. Drawing on Genevieve Vaughan’s theory of commodity exchange as a one-word language, we suggest that the empty signifier reflects the objective conceptuality of the money form of value, not a universal aspect of social and political reality. This projection of the value-form eternalises capitalist social forms and promotes a politics which discounts proletarian and ‘popular’ self-activity.
2 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10 |
| M · momentum | 0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.