“Marx and the Politics of Need”, with George Boss

Abstract:

Contemporary politics constantly and necessarily invokes a concept of human needs. But while that language is widely present in politics, needs themselves are typically regarded as profoundly extra-political, in that they are cast as moral necessities sitting outside of politics that prescribe what must be done over-and-above the contingencies of political contestation and decision-making. In this lecture, I draw on my recent book – Marx and the Politics of Need – to present a rebuttal and alternative to that orthodox view. I do so by reinterpreting Marx’s writings on need not as didactic statements of an abstract philosophy, but as subversive interventions and provocations inseparable from his radical political activism. The resulting Marxian approach pivots away from fixed, extra-political conceptions of need, and towards the political projects that ‘needs-talk’ contains and advances. Doing so highlights the deep entanglements of needs with prevailing structures of oppression, helping to draw out the political work that needs-talk performs in shaping contemporary political dilemmas and structural challenges.

Bio:

George Boss is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. His research focuses on contemporary political theory, the philosophy of language, and the work of Karl Marx, with an emphasis on the concept of human needs. His doctoral research on Marx and human needs was awarded the Sir Ernest Barker Prize for the best UK dissertation in political theory, and his first monograph – Marx and the Politics of Need – was published by Routledge in 2026.