CLASS STRUGGLE, WORK ETHICS AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMMON GOOD: RESITUATING THE CENTRALITY OF WORK IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Abstract

In this text I analyze, in a comparative approach, the potentialities and limits of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theory of hegemony and the conception of common good from the perspective of Hartmut Rosa's theory of resonance, as theoretical and analytical instruments for the construction of an anti-essentialist theory of class struggle, based on the concepts of liberal and individualist work ethics and socialist ethics of organized work. The starting point of this comparison is to realize the absence of sociological analysis in the thought of Laclau and Mouffe and, on the other hand, the absence of a debate on hegemony in Rosa's political thought, and, finally, in common among these three authors, the lack of an anti-essentialist concept of social class, although all three agree that the social management of the means of production is one of the necessary goals to be achieved to overcome the contemporary civilizational crisis.