Undoing Class

Does it matter to speak in terms of class, class struggle and class politics?

Abstract

The notion of class plays only a minor role in analyses of social inequality and social development, although class structures are still reproduced in new forms and on higher levels. However, class is not a category that exists independently or outside of social relations. Instead, it should be conceived of as collective practices of struggle. But if all struggles – and there exist many in the different conjunctures of capitalist development – are class struggles, what is specific about each of them and what particular meaning has the term »class«? It is argued that »class« is a signifier constituting a chain of contradictions beyond identity to overcome the everlasting problems (like destruction of nature, racism, sexism) that are constitutive for capitalism.