Is This a Utopia? Maybe It Is a Programme: Work, Social Subject and Utopia in André Gorz’s Political Thought

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the dichotomous relationship between the ideas of reform and revolution has become increasingly unbalanced, with the latter becoming an almost anachronistic and, at best, utopian term. André Gorz was one of the theorists who stood out most for his intellectual and political resistance to this trend, problematizing these concepts without, however, abandoning a way out of capitalism. Based on his work published from the mid-1960s until his death in 2007, the aim of this research is to analyse the political programs designed to achieve this end. The article aims to understand the objective and subjective conditions of these strategies, namely labour relations; the set of measures contemplated; and the social subject constituent of and constituted by such changes.