Beyond the factory: Struggling with class and class struggle in the post-industrial context. (June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chatterjee, Ipsita
• Is Part Of: Capital & class. Volume 40:Number 2(2016)
• Page Start: 263
• Page End: 281
• Publication Date: 2016-06
• Subjects: Class -- class struggle -- exploitation -- labour -- labour union -- de-industrialisation -- informalisation -- post-Fordism; Economics -- Periodicals; Socialism -- Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0309816815604630
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-8168

Abstract

A dominant strand of literature adopting an identity-oriented approach towards industrial decline and post-Fordist flexibilisation argues that we are in a 'post-industrial' world in which class struggles and 'old' labour movements have been replaced by struggles around identity. This article examines working-class politics in the city of Ahmedabad, India, in the pre- and post-liberalisation phases in order to understand whether class struggle is indeed being replaced by identity struggle. In juxtaposing Marx with E.P. Thompson, the article re-visits concepts such as class, class struggle and exploitation in order to understand them in new ways in an increasingly 'post-industrial', 'post-Fordist' world.