Klass och postmodernism. Ett feministiskt val

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a means to utilise elements of post-modern theory in the process of renewing class analysis, to a point where the historic conflicts between class theory and feminism dissolve. In other words, I call for a post-modernist-inspired feminist and post- Marxist understanding of the class concept. From the multifaceted tradition of post-modernism, I have primarily applied the method of critical deconstruction of grand narratives, as well as its urge to question the classical dichotomy of structure/agent, economy/culture, and material reality/language. I start out by discussing the modern class narrative from the perspective of its founders, Karl Marx and Max Weber, and with a particular regard to the internal feminist critique directed towards it. I then move from Joan Acker, via Beverley Skeggs, to Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler. By way of reasoning with others feminists, past and present, I reach the conclusion that the most promising potential for reconciliation between feminism and class analysis is to be found in socialist radical feminism, especially with those who have put forward the important role of sexuality in the construction of the capitalist system. My conclusion is that we need a broader class narrative with a relevance for pre-/early-modern as well as late-/post-modern times, not predisposed to run in any given direction; including reproduction as much as production; status, culture, consumption and life style at the same time as hierarchy and conflict; counting both redistribution and recognition. From a post-Marxist perspective, class will be seen as a social construction – in the process of classifying groups, or in the way in which we talk and move in space – in a similar mode to the making of sexual difference or gender.