The organic intellectual and the production of class in Spain

Abstract

This chapter addresses the relationship between three aspects of the concept of class. The first is as an analytical tool, particularly within anthropology. The second is as a social relation that takes particular forms in particular historical settings. The third is as a means of struggle. I will address the relationship between these aspects of class in terms of four questions: What class do we need or want? What kinds of collectivity need to be conceptualised and brought about if we want to transform capitalism? What sorts of practical politics will have to be developed? What sort of historical bloc can we contribute to form? Class is problematic because it has been conceptualized both as the locus of articulation of a structural position within the mode of production and as an emergent form in existing social conflict. Consequently, class is always being produced and changed through actual economic and political struggles. It is also important to recognise the strength of Gramsci’s (1987) point that these struggles are also theoretical, for they are shaped by the common-sense interpretation of structural positions that defines collective identities and lines of struggle. I will follow Gramsci’s lead and stress that what he calls the “organic intellectual”, and intellectual debate in general, is central to producing understandings of the structure of the social processes that frame the realms of collective class identity and of organized and purposeful struggle.