A necessarily historical materialist moment? Feminist reflections on the need for grounded critique in an age of crises

Abstract

Global Capitalism, Global War, Global Crisis reminds us how particular moments and events, albeit ones produced by systemic and reiterative processes, warrant serious reflection by scholars seeking to highlight and challenge modes of oppression and inequality. In drawing attention to the ‘violence of abstraction’ the book creates space for reconsidering how we move beyond modes of critique that focus primarily on principles, to those more rooted in historical and sociological practices. In this regard, the book has much in common with many branches of feminist theory which have sought to undermine the violence of abstraction, instead drawing attention to the lived and gendered consequences of global capital, war and crisis. Nonetheless, although the book engages directly and productively with some branches of feminist thought, greater reflection on points of convergence and divergence would highlight more of the book's blindspots and wider contributions. Accordingly, I consider what opportunities the book offers for rethinking feminist critique after the postmodern turn and in an age of crises, and what contemporary feminist theory in turn offers historical materialism. I ultimately aim to show how the present, and the historical and sociological forces that shape it, is necessarily both a historical materialist and feminist moment.