The first key contribution is the way Cox
introduces his own assessment by distinguishing it from the work of what
Antonio Gramsci called ‘traditional intellectuals’. These traditional
intellectuals, who often operate in our universities, have often had only very
little experience themselves of being part of a movement and are generally
identifying themselves with how society is. If there is a call for action, then
it is generally made from a ‘superior’ position of telling others what they
should do, the expert instructing others about their role. Unsurprisingly,
traditional intellectuals are unlikely to be part of any radical effort to
change existing social and power structures. They ‘almost always work within
hierarchical institutions in which their job, their promotion or their next
engagement depends on pleasing people above them, who are in turn closer to
power, cultural authority and sheer wealth. Given what social movements are, it
is hardly surprising that (at the most basic) the only way to advance one’s
career while mentioning movements is to misrepresent them’ (P.xi).
By contrast, Cox writes from the
perspective and the experience of someone who has always been involved in
social movement struggles in some form or another. His attempt is not to state
categorically what social movements are and what not, or what they should be.
Rather, the purpose of his book is to contribute to the collective learning
about social movement struggles with a focus on fighting more successfully for
social justice in the future. Unlike traditional intellectuals, ‘organic
intellectuals’ ‘need to keep on stepping out of the door and into the street,
placing ourselves in the unpredictable situation with our allies which is
movement organising, and then in the unpredictable situation with our opponents
that is conflict’ (P.113). It is an effort to contribute to ‘praxis-oriented
thinking … a concrete examination of the real potential of a particular group
of actors’ (P.75) and the development of a ‘good sense’, which can provide a
basis for policies of social justice.
The challenge for academics is clear,
according to Cox. As ‘organic intellectuals, ‘we need more serious reflection
on the relationship between ideas and social agency in academia, in the form of
a praxis-oriented sociology of knowledge: what are we doing when we theorise?
And, more sharply, do our ideas reflect actual battles and contribute to these
or do they reflect and justify our own situation, relying on the role of
“traditional intellectuals” and hence seeking “objective” intellectual legitimacy?’
(PP.92-3)
Second, Cox highlights that social
movements are always present and always involved in struggles. ‘What makes something a movement rather than something else is
above all conflict: movements develop (and argue over) a sense of “we” which is
opposed to a “they” (the state, corporations, a powerful social group, a form
of behaviour) in a conflict which is about the shape and direction of society
…’ (P.xii). This is far removed from understanding politics as a technocratic
undertaking, in which experts advice governments on how to formulate policies
in the general interest. Cox correctly points out that if there is inequality,
then because some people benefit from it. ‘Exploitation persists because the
wealthy benefit; and cultural stigmatisation persists because those at the top
of the hierarchy quite like it that way’ (P.15). Social justice can, therefore,
only be obtained through struggle.
Third, similar to earlier work with Alf
Nilsen (see We
make our own history – A call to action!) Cox argues that all
existing structures of oppression and injustice are the result of struggles
between social movements from above and social movements from below –
‘movements made the world we live in’. In these struggles, at times popular
struggles succeed in establishing alternative institutions, which in turn,
however, may then be co-opted by powerful forces. ‘Understanding this
paradoxical dialectic helps us to see both the ways in which movements from
below have helped make the modern world, and the ways in which movements from
above have reshaped our movements and what were once their institutions’ (P.55).
Once it is acknowledged that (oppressive) structures are the result of human
action, then suddenly resistance becomes possible and struggles for social
justice meaningful. Structures can be perceived ‘as produced and maintained by
agents and alliances that can be opposed and disaggregated’ (PP.76-7). As
exploitation is the result of human action, it can also be changed.
And yet, as important as this focus on the
possibilities of agency is, I am wondering whether Cox’s rejection of any kind
of serious analysis of structure is not too one-sided, or voluntarist, as some
would argue. Of course, Cox is correct when he pronounces that ‘we cannot
deduce from people’s structural situation what they will actually do’ (P.63). Nevertheless,
I would argue that the capitalist social relations of production, within which
we live, exhibit a set of structuring conditions, which circumscribe to some
extent what kind of strategies of resistance social movements can pursue. In
fact, although Cox does mention class here and there in this book, he never
really discusses the key features of capitalism and here especially
capitalism’s relentless, structural pressure towards outward expansion into new
areas of exploitation in order to overcome its inherent crisis tendency.
By overlooking the structuring conditions
of capitalism, Cox fails to acknowledge that it is within capitalist production
organised around wage labour and the private ownership of the means of
production, where exploitation takes place. This does not have to imply a
narrow focus on the workplace. Drawing on feminist social reproduction theory
and world ecology, we can define capitalist accumulation broadly thus including
struggles in the sphere of social reproduction in homes and struggles over
environmental exploitation and the way struggles over gender, race and
ethnicity, for example, are internally related to struggles over exploitation
at the workplace. As it stands, there is a danger that Cox overlooks the
historical specificity of capitalism, which is essential for our understanding of
possibilities of resistance.
Overall, however, this criticism should
not distract from the crucial contributions of this book and its relevance for
our times. It is a powerful reminder for critical academics of what is at stake in
the ways we operate in the workplace and relate to social movements. This is a
must-read for all those, who are interested in making a real difference through
their activist-academic work, be it as students, teachers or researchers, be it
in schools, colleges or universities!
Professor of Political Economy
Andreas Bieler
University of Nottingham/UK
Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
22 May 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments welcome!