Marxist discourse around automation has recently become waylaid with breathless techno-pessimist dystopias and fanciful imaginations of automated luxury communism. This collection of essays by both established veterans of the field and new voices is a refreshingly sober materialist reflection on recent technological developments within capitalist production.It covers a broad range of digital aspects now proliferating across our work and lives, including chapters on the digitalisati...

Today, a new kind of freedom fighter has emerged in our midst: liberal and open-minded, these individuals champion liberty and resent the imposition of more and more rules and exhortations that constrain their freedom. They are angry, disgruntled, offended. Why should they have to wear a face mask, get vaccinated or follow new rules on diversity and equality? They should be free to choose. They do not long for a glorified past or the strong arm of the state but argue instead for individual...

This book questions the mainstream interpretation of the current political shifts as a move to ultra-conservative and even fascist politics, changing the polities of the Western democracies that can be overcome by “reclaiming democracy”. Instead of following this path, the present work analyses these developments as extreme consequence that emerged from the individualist and short-sighted understanding of rationality that coined the enlightenment and had been translated into an institution...

Pandemics — it seems that it had been the beginning of a new era, after a first shock wave a new normality commenced trying to, repress the complex challenges while living under a new Sword of Damocles. Origins and consequences of the virus had been frequently issued, but only little attention had been paid to structural problems of societies, making it difficult to cope with the exceptional situation. The present book, focusing on the German polity and its structural weakness, analysis th...

The book aims at presenting an updated version of the basic and general human rights debates. While it is frequently suggested that Human Rights are universal and indivisible, it is an undeniable fact that this is far from being true. And if there was ever any justification for talking about an ending to history, that narrative has definitely lost all justification in the light of recent developments. In fact, we are now witnessing a new harsh round of global system competition, often at t...

With international human rights under challenge, this book represents a comprehensive critique that adds a social policy perspective to recent political and legalistic analysis.Expert contributors draw on local and global examples to review constructs of universal rights and their impact on social policy and human welfare. With thorough analysis of their strengths, weaknesses and enforcement, it sets out their role in domestic and geopolitical affairs.Including a forward by...

Translated from the original German Lenin Neuentdecken and available in English for the first time, this volume rediscovers Lenin as a strategic socialist thinker through close examination of his collected works and correspondence. Brie opens with an analysis of Lenin's theoretical development between 1914 and 1917, in preparation for his critical decision to dissolve the Constituent Assembly in January 1918 in a struggle for power. This led from the dialectics of revolutionary pr...

Currently it is fashionable to talk about digitisation, robotisation, industry 4.0, but also about the gig economy, the Millenials, precarisation and the like. However, the relevant issues are too often taken in isolation, referring to an extrapolation of overcome structures. The present collection aims on moving further by qualifying some aspects, and also by approaching the topic from distinct perspectives in order to arrive at an assessment of emerging changes of the socio-economic form...

Three radical perspectives on the critique of capitalismFor years, the critique of capitalism was lost from public discourse; the very word “capitalism” sounded like a throwback to another era. Nothing could be further from the truth today. In this new intellectual atmosphere, Sociology, Capitalism, Critique is a contribution to the renewal of critical sociology, founded on an empirically grounded diagnosis of society’s ills. The authors, Germany’s leading...

Social quality thinking emerged from a critique of one-sided policies by breaking through the limitations previously set by purely economistic paradigms. By tracing its expansion and presenting different aspects of social quality theory, this volume provides an overview of a more nuanced approach, which assesses societal progress and introduces proposals that are relevant for policy making. Crucially, important components emerge with research by scholars from Asia, particularly China, east...

As we move through our modern world, the phenomenon we call knowledge is always involved. Whether we talk of know-how, technology, innovation, politics or education, it is the concept of knowledge that ties them all together. But despite its ubiquity as a modern trope we seldom encounter knowledge in itself. How is it produced, where does it reside, and who owns it? Is knowledge always beneficial, will we know all there is to know at some point in the future, and does knowledge really equa...

Friedrich A. Hayek is regarded as one of the preeminent economic theorists of the twentieth century, as much for his work outside of economics as for his work within it. During a career spanning several decades, he made contributions in fields as diverse as psychology, political philosophy, the history of ideas, and the methodology of the social sciences. Bruce Caldwell—editor of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek—understands Hayek's thought like few others, and with this book he ...