From Domination to Liberation

• In Event: 508 - Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Social Movements

Abstract

The progressive social movements of 2011 that shattered the status quo can be best understood as “great refusals” (Marcuse) reflecting a variety of grievances stemming from the various legitimation crises of global capitalism. As Habermas (1975) argued, the crises of the system migrate to the realms of subjectivity evoking strong emotions such as anger, anxiety and indignation that dispose social mobilizations. Moreover, what was especially evident as a goal of these movements was the quest for dignity as rooted in an emancipatory Freudo-Marxist philosophical anthropological critique of alienation, domination and suffering.
But grievances and emotions do not lead to social movements- that requires certain kind of leadership and organization. More specifically, the critiques of domination and emancipatory visions in the work of the Frankfurt School, when complemented by Antonio Gramsci’s critiques of hegemony in which “organic intellectuals” organize the subalterns, provide counter-hegemonic narratives and foster “wars of position”. At this point, a critical perspective on social movements provides a politically informed critique of domination, with visions of Utopian possibility in which membership in democratic, egalitarian, identity granting/recognizing communities of meaning allows for, indeed fosters community, agency, creative self-realization and dignity of all.

Author

• Lauren Langman, Loyola University-Chicago