Undoing Class

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

Authors

  • Alex Demirović

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v50i200.1905

Keywords:

class, class struggle, perfomativity

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.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Adorno, Theodor W. (1964): Philosophische Elemente einer Theorie der Gesellschaft. In: Ders.: Nachgelassene Schriften IV.12. Frankfurt/M 2008.

– / Jaerisch, Ursula (1968): Anmerkungen zum sozialen Konflikt heute. In: Theodor W. Adorno: Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. 8. Frankfurt/M 1972.

Althusser, Louis (1962): Widerspruch und Überdetermination. Anmerkungen für eine Untersuchung. In: Ders.: Für Marx. Berlin 2011.

Boltanski, Luc, Chiapello, Ève (2003): Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus. Konstanz.

Eribon, Didier (2016): Rückkehr nach Reims. Berlin.

Gilcher-Holtey, Ingrid (1995): »Die Phantasie an die Macht«. Mai 68 in Frankreich. Frankfurt/M.

Laclau, Ernesto (2013): Universalität konstruieren. In: Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, Slavoj Žižek: Kontingenz, Hegemonie, Universalität. Aktuelle Dialoge zur Linken. Wien-Berlin.

Marx, Karl/ Engels, Friedrich (1956ff.): Marx-Engels-Werke (MEW). Berlin.

Nachtwey, Oliver (2016): Die Abstiegsgesellschaft. Über das Aufbegehren in der regressiven Moderne. Berlin.

Poulantzas, Nicos (1975): Klassen im Kapitalismus – heute. Westberlin.

Downloads

Published

2020-09-01

How to Cite

Demirović, A. (2020). Undoing Class: Does it matter to speak in terms of class, class struggle and class politics?. PROKLA. Journal of Critical Social Science, 50(200), 429–438. https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v50i200.1905

Issue

Section

Articles of the Special Issue

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 > >> 

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.