Beyond the State and capital: notes on three critical approaches to the common

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present and discuss the main theoretical approaches to the common that have developed, in recent years, within the scope of critical thinking of a Marxist lineage. The recent emergency of the common in the political imagination as an emancipatory alternative to the State-capital, public-private property dichotomies. The main arguments and conclusions of three theoretical-conceptual and political perspectives central to the critical debate on the common are presented, which in different ways dialogue with Marx: the common of biopolitical production by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri; the common autonomist of social reproduction by Silvia Federici and Massimo De Angelis; and the common as a political principle by Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval. In addition to presenting this panoramic picture, it concludes with an attempt to provide a provisional assessment of the debate by pointing out approximations, divergences and contradictions between the approaches.