I have written a few blogs about the work of Erik Olin Wright, and here’s another, although this time it arises out of an earlier collection of essays of his entitled Understanding Class (published by Verso in 2015). I focus here on his distinctions between three different approaches to class within sociology: (1) class as… Read More »
When considering assorted potentials for effective collective action against financialised capitalism in the UK, I have so far put the emphasis on a triad of factors: Permanent reform – or the significance of constantly pushing and campaigning for achievable shifts in policy and practice, and doing so on a sliding scale from minor to major… Read More »
This is a third and final blog on Erik Olin Wright’s elegant and enlightening How to Be An Anti-capitalist in the 21st Century. Its focus is on what I have previously called ‘triggers for change’ and Wright terms ‘agents for transformation’. It is important to register at the outset a point made by Michael Burawoy… Read More »
This is a second blog arising out of my reading of Erik Olin Wright’s How to Be An Anti-capitalist in the 21st Century. While the first focused on general modes or strategies for resisting capitalism, this one summarises and comments on his listing of pragmatic interventions to this end. I have always found a tension… Read More »
Eric Olin Wright is sadly no longer with us, but we are fortunate to have his new book, How to Be an Anti-capitalist in the 21st Century, to remember him by and to work with. In this first of (maybe) two or three blogs, I consider briefly his typology of strategic logics in relation to… Read More »
This is a blog about ‘beginnings’. Why am I committing valuable café time to this concept? For three reasons: (a) it is a significant notion with an extended reach and multiple reference points; (b) it is of sociological import in several respects, and (c) it is fascinating in its own right. The beginnings I’ve opted… Read More »
I have often said blogs are a device for thinking aloud, for me at least. This one is an exemplar for that agenda. I would not hesitate to argue that financialised capitalism is characterised by a deepening class division and class struggle amounting to class warfare. But what does class mean in this context. It… Read More »
I have maintained over a period of roughly two decades that capital buys power to make policy with a view to its further accumulation, and that it has shown a greatly enhanced return under post-1970s financialised capitalism. Expanding on this formula, I have argued: (a) that the UK is now characterised by a new ‘class/command… Read More »
I am delighted to be co-authoring a book on ‘Communal Forms’ with old friend Aksel Tjora (well, I’m old and he’s a friend). Naturally enough it’s set me thinking about how far we have come from the early days of ‘community studies’. Blogs, as I’ve often said, allow people to think aloud, and this blog… Read More »
Guy Standing is an innovative thinker and contributor to policy formation. He is best known for his concept of the ‘precariat’ and for championing a universal basic income. In a recent chapter in Economics for the Many (edited by John McDonnell) he introduces a few more novel concepts, and these are the focus of this… Read More »