Prefigurative Politics Within, Despite and Beyond Contemporary Capitalism

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to elaborate on the concept of prefiguration by outlining the necessity of its contribution to bring progressive social change and transcend contemporary capitalism through a process of erosion from within. It is argued that prefigurative politics entails a holistic (from the Greek holos, meaning ‘whole’ or ‘entire’) approach to social change that digs its roots in feminist and ecological thought and focuses on social reproduction and the preservation of life rather than solely on economic production. By referring to recent scholarly work on real utopias and alternatives to capitalism (for example, by Nancy Fraser and Erik Olin Wright), the chapter contends that prefigurative politics constitutes a fundamental and necessary component of any political strategy aimed at transcending contemporary capitalism since it conceives progressive social change in an ontologically and epistemologically different way with respect to political parties and protest movements. Taking this into consideration, it is concluded that conventional politics and prefigurative politics can be seen as having the potential to mutually reinforce each other.