Counter-hegemonic subjects and crisis of capitalism according to Nancy Fraser: Has ecology become a servant of capitalism?

Abstract

Nancy Fraser, a well-known feminist philosopher, surprised a few years ago with the controversial idea that feminism became neoliberalism’s servant. Her critical analysis of feminism, by extension, is projected onto a whole constellation of social struggles, whose antagonistic character is under suspicion within Fraser’s view of neoliberal capitalism. In this paper, the analytical model proposed by Fraser to understand current capitalism, and the potential it holds for the emergence of counterhegemonic subjects, is discussed, paying special attention to the way she deals with the environmental movement. First, her thesis on the current political realignment under the crisis of neoliberal hegemony and the role played by feminism are presented. Secondly, her proposal is discussed according to the questions posed by the feminist critique in the issues of the social movement’s agency, identity and normative bivalence. Thirdly, Fraser's updated contribution to the theory of capitalism is presented as a topographic-institutional model. Finally, it is debated the case of the environmental movement and its virtual affinity with neoliberalism according to her model, from the dimensions highlighted by the feminist critics. In conclusion, it is argued that Fraser’s model has not sufficiently addressed criticism, and that this is reflected in her treatment of the ecological dimension of contemporary capitalism and the antagonistic orientation of environmental struggles.