Working-class intellectuals: Challenging the dominant political and economic consensus.

This editorial examines how the ruling class’s ideas continue to dominate contemporary society by legitimizing a neoliberal hegemonic framework characterized by individualism, competition, and compliance, which marginalizes working-class perspectives. Drawing on Marx’s theory that the ruling class controls both material and intellectual production, it argues that dominant institutions and cultural practices reproduce ideologies that sustain inequality and silence working-class experiences. The collection of articles and reports discussed emphasizes the importance of analyzing class through both subjective lived experience and objective structural conditions, advocating for intellectual labor that connects theory to political practice. Additionally, the issue highlights efforts to center working-class voices in academia and culture, challenging elitist norms and exploring the potential of popular culture and community arts as sites of resistance within capitalist social relations.