Maria Renata Márkus (1936–2017) was a Polish sociologist and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. She was educated in philosophy at the

Lomonosov University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

in Moscow from 1952 to 1957 and was awarded her master's degree in Poland in 1957. She moved to Hungary in 1957 and became a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

and was a founding member of the Institute of Sociology at the academy where she worked closely with

András Hegedüs András Hegedüs (; 31 October 1922 – 23 October 1999) was a Hungary, Hungarian Communist politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary, Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1955 to 1956. He fled to the Soviet Union on 28 October, ...

. In 2010, a ''Festschrift'' was published in her honour. The journal Thesis Eleven published an issue to commemorate her in 2019. She was a member of the “

Budapest School The Budapest School (; ) was a school of thought, originally of Marxist humanism, but later of post-Marxism and dissident liberalism that emerged in Hungary in the early 1960s, belonging to so-called Hungarian New Left. Its members were student ...

” of Marxism, along with other philosophers and sociologists such as

Ágnes Heller Ágnes Heller (12 May 1929 – 19 July 2019) was a Hungarian philosopher and lecturer. She was a core member of the Budapest School philosophical forum in the 1960s and later taught political theory for 25 years at the New School for Social Rese ...

György Márkus György Márkus (13 April 1934 – 5 October 2016) was a Hungarian philosopher, belonging to the small circle of critical theorists closely associated with György Lukács and usually referred to as the Budapest School. Biography Márkus ...

, István Mészáros, Ferenc Fehér and

Mihály Vajda Mihály () is a Hungarian masculine given name. It is a cognate of the English Michael and may refer to: * Mihály András (1917–1993), Hungarian cellist, composer, and academic teacher * Mihály Apafi (1632–1690), Hungarian Prince of Transy ...

. The School was disbanded after the Prague Spring and many of its members forced into exile. Márkus, along with other members of the School, lost her academic position on ideological and political grounds. She moved to Australia in 1978 and worked as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

. She has published widely on topics including on the sociology of work, industrial sociology, political sociology, the sociology of economics, stratification, philosophy and sociological theory, feminism and industry, as well as on the shifting boundaries of the private and public spheres. The idea of a 'decent society' emerged as a central theme in her later work. Equally important in her work, but also in the broader work of the Budapest School and their interest in the idea of needs, was Maria Markus' idea of the 'politicisation of needs' within the School's broader framework of radical democracy. She was a "friend and intellectual ally of Agnes Heller". Markus was married to Hungarian philosopher

Selected publications

* Markus, M. R. (2010), 'Can solitude be recaptured for the sake of intimacy?', in H. Blatterer, P. Johnson & M. R. Markus (eds), ''Modern privacy: shifting boundaries, new forms'', New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 88–101. * Markus, M. R. (2010), 'Lovers and friends: 'radical utopias' of intimacy?', ''Thesis Eleven'', vol. 101, pp. 6–23. * Markus, M. R. (2002), 'Cultural pluralism and the subversion of the 'taken-for-granted' world', in P. Essed & D. T. Goldberg (eds), ''Race Critical Theories: Text and Context'', Oxford: Blackwell. * Markus, M. R. (2001), 'Decent society and/or civil society?', ''Social Research'', vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 1011–1030. * Markus, M. R. (1995), 'Civil society and the politicisation of needs', in K. Gavroglu, J. Stachel & M. W. Wartofsky (eds), ''Science, Politics and Social Practice'', The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, pp. 161–179. * Markus, M (1987), 'The 'anti-feminism' of Hannah Arendt', ''Thesis Eleven'', vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 76–87. * Markus, M (1985), 'Women, success, and civil society: submission to, or subversion of, the achievement principle', ''PRAXIS International'', vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 430–444. * Markus, M (1982), 'Overt and convert modes of legitimation in East European Societies', in T. H. Rigby & F Fehér, ''Political legitimation in communist states'', pp. 82–93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markus, Maria 1936 births 2017 deaths Polish sociologists Hungarian sociologists Hungarian women sociologists 20th-century Hungarian philosophers Hungarian women philosophers Polish women philosophers Polish emigrants to Australia Polish women academics 20th-century Polish philosophers 21st-century Polish philosophers 21st-century Hungarian philosophers