Culture in Mark Fisher's capitalism realism

Abstract

The present work traces the consequences of the notion of culture in the title concept of Mark Fisher’s book Capitalist Realism. For this, we initially make a brief exposition of Fisher’s arguments, passing by some of the central points of the work. Then, these arguments are qualified based on the use of the term culture, placing it in the history of social thought. Such characterization of Fisher’s concept enable the application of the sociologist Margaret S. Archer’s concept, Myth of Cultural Integration, to evaluate the concept of capitalist realism. Thus, we criticize Capitalist Realism on two main points: the use of the hermeneutic analysis which tends to melt away contradictory elements to Fisher’s analysis and the conflation of the social subject and the idea of ​​culture. Taken together, these criticisms lead us to the observation of the impossibility of capitalist realism, as defended by Fisher.