Marxism Captived to Intersectionality

Marxism Captived to Intersectionality


Davydov D.A.

Cand. Sci. (Polit.), Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia davydovdmitriy90@gmail.com

ID of the Article:

Rubric: Sociologycal yournalism

For citation:

Davydov D.A. Marxism Captived to Intersectionality. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2023. No 2. P. 125-136


 Full Text.


Abstract

The article deals with attempts to synthesize Marxism and the concepts of intersectionality. This synthesis became possible thanks to the evolution of Marxism, which focused less and less on economics and paid more attention to culture. Intersectional analysis completes this evolution by presenting class exploitation as one of the intersecting “systems of oppression”. This means that only by looking at all the dimensions of race, gender, sexuality and class in the structures of capitalism and imperialism can one understand power relations as we see them today. If the revolution of the working class never happened, then the last hope is to unite all the oppressed in order to fight for equality/ justice, democracy/freedom and community/solidarity. But, as shown in the article, the discourses of intersectionality, due to the desire to combine incompatible interests and social representations of the “oppressed”, are incapable of a constructive dialogue and maintaining internal unity in the struggle against the capitalist system. In this regard, the question is raised about the prospects for the further evolution of (post-)Marxism.


Keywords
intersectionality; Marxism; post-Marxism; class analysis; social structure; critical theory; critical racial theory; systemic oppression; LGBTQ+; feminism; patriarchy

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