Forms of Radical Subjectivity

Abstract

“Subjectivity” is taken to mean a collective form of consciousness or collaborative project or social movement, characterised by specific forms of organisation and representation. “Radical” subjectivity refers to those projects that fundamentally challenge the dominant social formation. The paper traces the succession of forms of radical subjectivity from the first emergence of the modern proletariat as an independent political agent, as for example in the secret societies that prepared for insurrection in Chartist England, up to the present period where we see phenomena such as the Occupy movement. Each form resolves problems inherent in the preceding form, and while pushing it into the background, so to speak, does not terminate that form, but sublates and includes it. Thus the process is seen in Hegelian terms as outlined in Book Two of the Logic, “Essence.”

Keywords:

• subjectivity
• projects
• Marx
• Hegel
• organisation

Notes on Contributor

Andy Blunden is an independent scholar who is an editor of Mind, Culture, and Activity. He is a Marxist who interprets Hegel using Vygotsky's cultural psychology, with the aim of developing a social theory with a sound foundation in psychology. He has published two books: An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity (2010) and Concepts: A Critical Approach (2012), and edited the multi-author volume Collaborative Projects: An Interdisciplinary Study (2014).