MURRAY E.G. SMITH

Curriculum Vitae

Professor Emeritus of Sociology 

Brock University

St. Catharines, Ontario

Canada L2S 3A1

FORMAL EDUCATION

     i)    Undergraduate:

            B.A. University of Manitoba, Sociology and Philosophy, 1981

      ii)  Graduate: 

            M.A. University of Manitoba, Sociology, 1984

            Ph.D. University of British Columbia, Sociology, 1989

      iii)  Titles of theses written for graduate degrees:

            M.A.  “The Falling Rate of Profit.” University of Manitoba 

            Ph.D.  “The Value Controversy and Social Theory: An Inquiry into Marx’s Labour Theory of Value.” University of British Columbia

ACADEMIC POSITIONS HELD

*Brock University: Professor Emeritus, 2022 – Present

*Brock University: Professor of Sociology, 2001 – 2022

*Brock University: Associate Professor, 1996-2001

*Brock University: Assistant Professor, 1993-1996

*University of Victoria: Visiting Assistant Professor, 1992-1993

*University of Manitoba: Sessional Instructor, several times between 1985 and 1992.

*University of Winnipeg: Evening Instructor, 1990-1991 

*University of Manitoba: Assistant Professor, 1989-1991 

PUBLICATIONS

Books

* Smith, Murray E.G. and Takuya Sato (eds.). 2026. The Structure of the Crisis of 21^st Century Capitalism: Studies Based on Marx’s Value Theory and the Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall.  Selected essays and book chapters by Sato, Smith, Roberts, Carchedi, Butovsky and Watterton; introduced and translated from the English to Japanese by Takuya Sato, Chuo University. Tokyo: Sakurai-Shoten Publishers.

* Smith, Murray E.G. and Tim Hayslip. 2025. Thinking Systematics: Critical Dialectical Reasoning for a Perilous Age and a Case for Socialism. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

* Smith, Murray E.G., Jonah Butovsky and Josh Watterton. 2021. Twilight Capitalism: Karl  Marx and the Decay of the Profit System. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

* Smith, Murray E.G.  2019. Invisible Leviathan: Marx’s Law of Value in the Twilight of Capitalism. Leiden & Boston: Brill Academic Publishers. Second, revised and expanded edition; published in the Historical Materialism Book Series; published in soft cover by Haymarket Books.

* Smith, Murray E.G. 2014. Marxist Phoenix: Studies in Historical Materialism and Marxist Socialism. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press (with contributions by Jonah Butovsky and Joshua Dumont).

* Smith, Murray E.G. 2010. Global Capitalism in Crisis: Karl Marx and the Decay of the Profit System. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

*Smith, Murray E.G. Judith Blackwell and John Sorenson. 2003. Culture of Prejudice: Arguments in Critical Social Science. Peterborough: Broadview Press. Published by University of Toronto Press since 2008.

*Smith, Murray E.G. (ed.). 1998. Early Modern Social Theory: Selected Interpretive Readings. (With a general introduction, section introductions and glossary by Murray Smith). Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press. 

*Smith, Murray E.G. 1994. Invisible Leviathan: The Marxist Critique of Market Despotism beyond Postmodernism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Chapters in Books and Encyclopedia Entries

*Smith, Murray and Jonah Butovsky. 2018. “Roots of the Global Crisis: Marx’s Law of Falling Profitability and the U.S. Economy, 1950-2013.” In Guglielmo Carchedi and Michael Roberts, eds, The World in Crisis. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

*Smith, Murray and Jonah Butovsky. 2013. “The Decline of the Labour Movement: A Socialist Perspective.” In T. Fowler, ed, From Crisis to Austerity: Neoliberalism, Organized Labour and the Canadian State. Ottawa: Red Quill Press. 

*Smith, Murray and Joshua Dumont. 2011. “Socialist Strategy, Yesterday and Today: Notes on Classical Marxism and the Contemporary Radical Left.”  In H. Veltmeyer, ed., 21^st Century Socialism: Reinventing the Project. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

*Smith, Murray. 2010. “Dialectical Materialism.” Sage Encyclopedia of Case Study Research (Volume One, 292-95), edited by Albert J. Mills, Gabrielle Durepos, and Elen Wiebe. Thousand Oaks, Cal. and London, UK: Sage Publications.

*Smith, Murray. 2010. “Modes of Production.” Sage Encyclopedia of Case Study Research (Volume Two, 567-70), edited by Albert J. Mills, Gabrielle Durepos, and Elen Wiebe. Thousand Oaks, Cal. and London, UK: Sage Publications.

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Credentialism.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition (Volume 2, 166-67), edited by William Darity, Jr. Detroit: MacMillan Reference.

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Managerial Class.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2^nd edition (Vol. 4, 577-79), edited by William Darity, Jr.  Detroit: MacMillan Reference.

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Ernest Mandel.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition (Vol. 4, 579-80), edited by William Darity, Jr. Detroit: MacMillan Reference.

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Putting-Out System.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2^nd edition (Vol. 6, 642-43), edited by William Darity, Jr. Detroit: MacMillan Reference.

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Self-Determination.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2^nd edition (Vol. 7, 405-07), edited by William Darity, Jr. Detroit: MacMillan Reference.

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Self-Employment.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2^nd edition (Vol. 7, 410-11), edited by William Darity, Jr. Detroit: MacMillan Reference

*Smith, Murray. 2008. “Objective Value.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2^nd edition  (Vol. 8, 577-78), edited by William Darity, Jr.  Detroit: MacMillan Reference.

*Smith, Murray. 2001. “Modernization Theory.” Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy (pp. 1031-35). London: Routledge.

*Smith, Murray. 2001. “Unequal Development.” Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy (pp. 1626-27). London: Routledge.

*Smith, Murray. 2000. “Political Economy and the Canadian Working Class: Marxism or Nationalist Reformism?” In Bryan D. Palmer, ed. Labouring the Canadian Millennium: Work and Workers, History and Historiography. St. John’s: Canadian Committee on Labou History.

*Smith, Murray. 1998. “Science, Ideology and ‘Economic Value’.” In M. Smith, (ed.) Early Modern Social Theory: Selected Interpretive Readings. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press. (Reprinted from M. Smith, Invisible Leviathan, Ch. 2.)

Articles in Refereed Journals

*Smith, Murray and Jonah Butovsky. 2012. “Profitability and the Roots of the Global Crisis:       Marx’s ‘Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall’ and the U.S. Economy, 1950-  2007.” Historical Materialism, 20:4, 39-74. (Translated into Mandarin and published in Social Sciences in China journal in 2019.)    

*Smith, Murray. 2011. “Author’s Reply to Review Symposium on Global Capitalism in Crisis: Global Discourse, Vol. 2, No.1. Available on line at: http://global-discourse.com/contents/global-capitalism-in-crisis-by-murray-e-g-smith/

*Smith, Murray. 2009. “Against Dualism: Marxism and the Necessity of Dialectical Monism.” Science & Society 73:3 (July): 356-385.

*Smith, Murray and Jonah Butovsky. 2007. “Beyond Social Unionism: Farm Workers in Ontario and Some Lessons from Labour History.” Labour/Le Travail, 59 (Spring): 69-97.

*Smith, Murray. 2000. “Political Economy and the Canadian Working Class: Marxism or Nationalist Reformism?” Labour/Le Travail, 46 (Fall): 343-68.

*Smith, Murray. 1999. “The Necessity of Value Theory: Brenner’s Analysis of the ‘Long  Downturn’ and Marx’s Theory of Crisis.” Historical Materialism, 4 (Summer): 149-169. 

*Smith, Murray. 1998. “Marxist Value Theory and ‘Progressive’ Poststructuralism: A Reply to Noel Castree.” Rethinking Marxism, 10:1 (Spring): 100-111.

*Smith, Murray and Pamela Campbell. 1997. “Discourses on Deafness: Social Policy and the Communicative Habilitation of the Deaf.” Canadian Journal of Sociology, 22:4: 437-456. 

*Smith, Murray. 1997. “Revisiting Trotsky: Reflections on the Stalinist Debacle and Trotskyism as Alternative.” Rethinking Marxism, 9:3 (1996/97): 40-67.

*Smith, Murray. 1997. “Rethinking ‘the Middle Class’: Ideological Constructions and Contradictory Structural Locations.” Brock Review, 6 (1/2): 56-73.

*Smith, Murray and K. W. Taylor. 1996. “Profitability Crisis and the Erosion of Popular Prosperity: The Canadian Economy, 1947-1991.” Studies in Political Economy, 49: 101-130 

*Smith, Murray. 1994-95. “Unproductive Labor and Profit Rate Trends:  A Rejoinder.” Science & Society, 58 (4): 489-494.

*Smith, Murray. 1994. “The ‘Intentional Primacy’ of the Relations of Production: Further  Reflections on the Dialectic of Social Development.” Science & Society, 58 (1): 72-78.

*Smith, Murray. 1994. “Alienation, Exploitation and Abstract Labor: A Humanist Defense of Marx’s Theory of Value.” Review of Radical Political Economics, 26 (1): 109-132.

*Smith, Murray. 1993. “Productivity, Valorization and Crisis: Socially Necessary Unproductive Labor in Contemporary Capitalism.” Science & Society, 57 (3): 262-293.

*Smith, Murray. 1992. “The Value Abstraction and the Dialectic of Social Development.”  Science & Society, 56(3): 261-290.[Reprint of Ch. 2 of M. Smith, Invisible Leviathan, 1994].

*Smith, Murray. 1992. “The Burzynski Controversy in the United States and in Canada: A Comparative Case Study in the Sociology of Alternative Medicine.” Canadian Journal of Sociology, 17 (2): 133-160.

*Smith, Murray. 1991. “Understanding Marx’s Theory of Value: An Assessment of a Controversy.” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, (28)3: 357-376.

*Smith, Murray. 1991. “Respecifying Marx’s Value Categories: A Theoretical and Empirical Reconsideration of the ‘Law of the Falling Rate of Profit’.” Studies in Political Economy, 35: 155-190. [Abridged reprint of Ch. 8 of M. Smith, Invisible Leviathan, 1994].

Creative work in the performing arts

* “Leon Trotsky: A Biography.” A 90-minute docudrama presented on CBC Radio’s ‘Tuesday Night’, November 1972. M. Smith served as researcher and assistant scriptwriter. Head writer: Mitch Podolak; Producer: Walter Unger. Recording available at: https://murraysmith.org/videos-and-other-material/ .

Book Reviews

*Smith, Murray. 2017. “Adrián Sotelo Valencia, The Future of Work: Super-Exploitation and Social Precariousness in the 21^st Century.” Labour/Le Travail, 79, 310-312.

*Smith, Murray. 2012. “Istvan Meszaros, Social Structure and Forms of Consciousness, Volume One: The Social Determination of Method.” Science & Society, 76:3, 406-8.

* Smith, Murray. 2001. “E. A. Plaut and Kevin Anderson, eds. Marx on Suicide.” Critical Sociology, 27: 139-142.

*Smith, Murray. 1997.  “Z. Duan, Marx’s Theory of the Social Formation.” Science & Society 61(3): 429-432.

*Smith, Murray. 1996. “D. McNally, Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique.” Review of Radical Political Economics, 28(3): 165-168.

*Smith, Murray. 1994. “D. MacGregor, Hegel, Marx and the English State.” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 31(2): 230-231.

*Smith, Murray. 1994. “J-M. Vincent, Abstract Labour: A Critique.” Review of Radical Political Economics 26 (3): 134-137.

*Smith, Murray. 1993. “C. McKelvey, Beyond Ethnocentrism.” Science & Society 57(1): 95-98.

Other Journal Publications

*Smith, Murray (with Tim Hayslip). August 4, 2025. The Bullet. “Critical-Dialectical Reasoning for a Perilous Age.” 

*Smith, Murray (with Tim Hayslip). Nov. 8, 2024. Counterpunch.org.

“Capitalist Democracy Is a Sham! For Socialist Democracy!” 

*Smith, Murray. December 30, 2022. Counrerunch.org. “ James P. Cannon: America’s Pioneer Trotskyist”, CounterPunch.org.

*Smith, Murray (with J. Butovsky and J. Watterton). April 23, 2021.Counterpunch.org.

Capitalist Morbidity and The Global Crisis – CounterPunch.org.

*Smith, Murray. January 12, 2020. Counterpunch.org. Karl Marx’s Law of Value in the Twilight of Capitalism – Counterpunch. 

*Smith, Murray. 2012. “Vertical.” Excerpt from Global Capitalism in Crisis. Adbusters, Number 100.

*Smith, Murray. 2009. “Capitalism in Crisis: A Marxist Analysis of the Global Downturn.” 1917: No. 31: 41-48.

*Smith, Murray. 1998. “The Revolutionary Betrayed: Trotsky and the ‘Crisis of Trotskyism’,” 1917, No. 20: 3-8.

*Smith, Murray. 1994. “The Burzynski Controversy: A Comparative Case Study in the Sociology of Alternative Medicine in the United States and in Canada.” Townsend Letter for Doctors, 129: 352-363 [Reprinted from Canadian Journal of Sociology].

Edited Collections, Monographs and Other Works

*Kurnarsky, Larry and Murray Smith. 1982. Famous and Fascinating Manitobans. Winnipeg: Face Productions. (Smith 50%, Kurnarsky 50%)

*Smith, Murray. 2011. “Burying Stalinism and Defending Socialism: Leon Trotsky Speaks, 2011.” A contrived interview with Trotsky (1879-1940) regarding the fate of Russia’s socialist revolution based on his own historic writings, on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the demise of the Soviet Union. Made freely available for posting on the Internet and/or print publication by journals and organizations of the socialist left. Published by Socialist Viewpoint, Sept/Oct 2011 and posted on SV’s website. Also published on the website of the International Bolshevik Tendency and as a pamphlet in the latter’s Marxist Studies Series. Available at http://www.murraysmith.org.

*Smith, Murray (ed.). 1995. Reader in Social Theory. A reprotext produced by Canadian Scholars Press for Sociology 2F01, History of Social Thought.

*Smith, Murray. 1995. Lecture Notes for History of Social Thought. A collection of detailed lecture notes prepared for students of Sociology 2F01. (78p)

*Smith, Murray (ed.). 1996. Reader in Political Economy of Canada. A reprotext produced by Canadian Scholars Press for Sociology 3P36, Political Economy of Canada.

*Smith, Murray (ed.). 1997. Reader in Social Movements. A reader produced by Brock University bookstore for Sociology 3P66, Social Movements.

*Smith, Murray (ed.). 1997. Reader in Social Class and Social Conflict. A reader produced by Brock University bookstore for Sociology 2P71, Social Class and Social Conflict. 

*Smith, Murray (ed.). 1998. Early Modern Social Theory: An Anthology of Original Readings. A reprotext produced by Canadian Scholars Press for Sociology 2P01.

*Smith, Murray (ed.). 1999. Readings in 20th Century Social Theory. A reprotext produced by Canadian Scholars Press for Sociology 2P02.

*Smith, Murray. 2007. Lecture Notes for Introduction to Early Modern Social Theory. A collection of detailed lecture notes prepared for students studying Sociology 3P00 (revised edition). (88 pages)

Last Update: March 28, 2026