Counterhegemonic Storytelling: The Ambivalence of Common Sense in Intersectional Alliances

Powerful alliances for social change become more urgent in times of multiple crises. Currently, authoritarian, patriarchal, racist, classist, and (hetero-)sexist patterns continue to gain momentum. However, in a world of intersectional oppression, it remains difficult to forge alliances demanding common demands and collective actions. It becomes even more difficult when we consider the different positions of power and domination from where we articulate and practice resistance. These (im)possibilities of intersectional alliances are still widely discussed in critical gender studies, black, and (queer-) feminist theory. The paper, thus, focuses on everyday life experience in which alliances can be forged. It does so through the lenses of hegemony theory to bring a currently underrated tool of critical analysis back into the discussion on intersectionality. Following feminist political scientist Brigitte Bargetz (2016), I argue that everyday life has an ambivalent role in the struggle for intersectional alliances. On the one hand, everyday life solidifies domination and, therefore, prevents intersectional alliances that emphasize interconnectedness and commonality in oppression. On the other hand, everyday life also provides possibilities for emancipatory resistance. However, does everyday life enable intersectional alliances? I will show in my paper that the answer depends on the way stories and the positions from where they are told in everyday life. With Antonio Gramsci (2012) and the feminist re-readings of Gundula Ludwig (2011), I understand stories as Common Sense [ital. Senso Comune] because they tell us what is normal, and thus without alternative, in certain societies at certain times and about which social consensus prevails. Common Sense represents a powerful instrument in the struggle of societal forces, which makes collective action (im)possible on an everyday basis: I will argue in a first step, that Common Sense as a "single story" (Adichie 2009) of consent to hegemonic positions, and privileges, makes intersectional alliances (almost) impossible. I will argue in a second step, that, contrastingly, Common Sense can offer the potential to enable fertile ground for intersectional alliances under certain conditions. I refer here to Gramsci's philosophy of praxis and feminist re-readings of counterhegemonic Common Sense (cf. Sara Ahmed 2021) to show that there are a lot of stories in the counter-archive telling of intersectionality. Therefore, stories do not only stabilize hegemony but can tell different stories, stories of difference that can be told from manifold positions.