Marxist class analysis in the era of precarity and flexibility

Abstract

The transformations of the work during the last decades, characterized by precariousness and flexibilization, represent a challenge for class analysis and Marxist analysis. The main aim of this article is to make a proposal, in discussion with Marx’s writings (on his 200th anniversary), which allows us to approach these social changes. We examine Marx’s class concept, taking into account its complexity, and contemporary approaches that use that conception in the analysis of current society. Marx offers an interesting and useful class concept since it frames the process of construction of the social class in a relational framework of political, economic and cultural struggles. We consider that the processes of transformation of work make class analysis focused on the social relations of domination and exploitation more interesting.