Ein neuer Klassenkampf? Prekarisierung, Soziale Schließung und Protest im Zeitalter des flexiblen Kapitalismus

In the past decades, the analyses of social structures almost abandoned the term “class”. The process of modernization reached a point where the relevance of large social groups decreased. In contrast, new tensions due to a growing wealth gap discharged during the latest economic crises. Against the background of new insecurities and new forms of social protest it seems necessary to revitalize the class theme. But still, it is unclear how to describe these class constellations and how they can be related to phenomena and tendencies occurring in a capitalism much more flexible than its fordist precursor. The aim of this article is, on the one hand, to provide a suggestion to structure the theoretical discourse and to sketch the contemporary class tableau of western societies. Against this background, it is possible, on the other hand, to attribute the widespread absence of class-specific protest to the establishment of certain mechanisms of social fragmentation.