Abstract

In this chapter, I challenge existing definitions of social class and rethink the class concept from a post-structuralist perspective. I draw on Michel Foucault’s concepts of disciplinary power to outline the subtle ways in which the control and subjugation of the raced and gendered working classes happen inside and outside academia. I also draw on Theodor W. Adorno’s concept of “non-identity” to theorize those moments when the raced and gendered working classes resist disciplinary power and redefine what it means to be “working-class.”