The Corporeality of Capitalism. The Female Body as Dominated Site of (Re-)Production

The Corporeality of Capitalism:
The Female Body as Dominated Site of (Re-)Production
Class-Critical lessons beyond consciousness.

While it is well-known that philosophies, ranging from Marx to Lenin and from Gramsci to Negri, have long been centered around the relation between the subject's (class-) consciousness and the system of capitalism, the class-conditioned corporeal body, let alone the female corporeal body (of color), has received relatively little (philosophical) attention.

This interdisciplinary workshop delves into how capitalism not only exploits the body externally but also shapes individuals' relationship with their own corporeality. It traces the historical and political adaptations of this dynamic, which manifest particularly in gender- and race-based conditionings of class structures, and examines how these modifications reshape practices like wet-nursing and breastfeeding—often and falsely regarded as timeless and natural.

In examining the intersection of class-, gender-, and race-based domination through the corporeal(self-)experiences of breastfeeding and wet-nursing framed within a theory of capitalist domination, this workshop both critiques and advances traditional Marxist and post-Marxist accounts of class. It brings together a wide variety of perspectives stemming from legal, philosophical, sociological and political theoretical engagements with differently conceptualized forms of domination.  
By foregrounding lived experiences, that is, by “corporealizing class”, this workshop highlights how the body itself is a site of power and struggle, rather than merely a passive object shaped by ideological forces.

In gathering various insights on race- and gender-based conditions of class, this workshop aims to provide new insights into the embodied dimensions of social inequality across different historical and social contexts.

Speakers: Katherina Kinzel, Rebecca Carson, Johanna Oksala, Carmen Puchinger, Maria Toledo Machado, Andrea Freeman           

Commentators: Dorothea Gädeke, Lillian Cicerchia, Friederike Beier, Esther Neuhann, Elise Huchet, Jenny Stupka


More detailed information can be found on the poster and in the program attached below.