Vivek Chibber’s The Class Matrix should give the #Left real confidence in class #analysis and class #politics. Over the span of a brief number of pages, it confronts the driving developments within social #science over the past half-century while also seeking to resuscitate the theories outlined in classical #Marxism with crucial modifications. It does all of this with a precision and thoughtfulness that all serious social analysis should aspire to.
Chibber’s interventions center around three points. First, a defense of a materialist conception of #class structure against a host of critics both within and outside the Marxist tradition; second, a reconceptualization of the process of class formation based on the internally generated macro-dynamics of the capitalist class structure; and finally, the conceptual demotion of hegemony—the #NewLeft’s favorite plaything—below the far more prevalent phenomena of resignation in explaining the stability of #capitalism.
These contributions provide the essential theoretical foundation from which any meaningful progressive politics must proceed. It’s for this reason that The Class Matrix’s placement within the arena of academic debate feels inappropriate, maybe even wasted on individuals with institutional incentives to disregard it. The book’s academic placement makes some sense given the Left’s persistent relegation to #academia—although this is a proportionally diminishing share of the #Left as a whole. It’s unfortunate then that the location of the Left within the middle class receives painfully little treatment by Chibber. In a moment when the ramifications of this are increasingly relevant and debate has been rekindled around terms like “the PMC,” this seems to be a missed opportunity in an otherwise critical #book for the Left.
https://damagemag.com/2022/03/30/making-the-dull-compulsions-sexy-again/ #socialism #revolution
