This book critically analyzes the current historical conjuncture of neoliberal capitalism with an eye to its emergent alternatives. Can democracy and capitalism thrive together? Is socialism a viable and a desirable alternative? What are the forms of emancipatory action and critical thought that can effectively chart a way forward? Focusing on nine “critical debates” it provides a uniquely comprehensive overview of the tensions, contradictions, and latent emancipatory potential of contemporary global capitalism. The specific debates are as follows: capitalism’s relationship with democracy; privatization and governance of the commons; the financialization of capitalism; technology and the future of work; varieties of neoliberal capitalism; cosmopolitanism, international development, and human rights; feminist theory and social solidarity; sustainability and climate change; and theories of capitalist crisis.

The book provides a comprehensive, critical overview of philosophical, social-scientific, and humanistic arguments about the design and desirability of “post-work” society. Its purpose is to clarify the concepts and theories that inform this debate by exploring the diversity of arguments from a wide range of perspectives about the meaning of a “post-work” future. The book’s 12 chapters were written exclusively for the volume by an international team of researchers in philosophy, political science, gender studies, law, sociology, history, and engineering. They are organized into four larger sections: I. Defining the “Post-Work” Debate II. From Past to Future III. The Value and Conditions of Work vs. Post-Work IV. The Politics and Justice of Post-Work After a general introduction and then an initial round-table discussion among four leading theorists, the book explores topics like work as an evolving social invention, the possible effects of a shorter work week and UBI, automation, climate change, and the roles of Marxism, capitalism, and democracy in a post-work future.

This book covers a lot of ground in contemporary macroeconomics, from fundamental theories such as market structures and equilibrium to emerging concepts that reflect the most critical challenges of modern times, including economic slowdowns, the resilience of public health systems, digitalization, environmental footprints, and many more. The COVID-19 outbreak has aggravated the recurrent problems of poverty and income inequality between countries, food insecurity and hunger, unemployment, and social disorders that have resulted in the exacerbation of political, economic, and trade tensions between countries. In view of the damaging consequences of the pandemic for the entire global economy, the book examines how existing macroeconomic tools and policies could be adapted to the new normal to ensure sustainable post-pandemic development and growth. The main text is interspersed with real-life illustrations and cases that demonstrate practical implications of the concepts under study. This makes the reading relevant and active. Every chapter starts with learning objectives and ends with a series of questions and quizzes that enable easier reinforcement of the course content. This book is written mainly for students, but it would be much useful to the broader public audience, including postgraduates, researchers, and business people who will be able to learn all recent updates about macroeconomics and the post-pandemic perspectives of the global economy.

At a time when the validity of Marxism is being questioned because of the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, Richard Harris examines the relevance of Marxism and socialism for Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Harris discusses recent revolutionary regimes and attempts at socialist transformation in the region in terms of Marxist theory, comparing them with the historical experiences of the Soviet Union, China, Yugoslavia, and Vietnam. The author argues that Marxist theory offers a framework for understanding recent revolutionary transformations as well as the contradictions and limitations of existing democratic regimes in the region. Particular attention is given to revolutionary Cuba, the Allende administration in Chile, the Popular Revolutionary Government in Grenada, the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, and contemporary leftist parties and movements throughout Latin America. He contends that democratization and the solution of the region's economic and social problems require a democratic socialist project.

I was born March 8, 1947 into a railroad family. I had two major passions in my early teens: the Democratic Party and John F. Kennedy. With his assassination and then the failure to seat the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in the summer of 1964, I lost all mooring with Party politics. The following May 1965, I graduated from Pocatello High School; I was eighteen, registered for the draft, and the nation was at war. Mr. Johnsons escalation of the war in Vietnam, along with the sending of troops into the Dominican Republic, completed my crisis of faith; I was no longer a Democrat. My history is an intellectually personal one of the awakening and growth of a radical in love with the wonderment of the radical life-style. This is a story of an insurrection and rebellion on the limits placed upon essential human quality in a consumer-based society. This rebellion is, at its core, anti-capitalist, anti-state, anti-bureaucratic, anti-clerical, anti-patriarchal and anti-positivist. This rebellion has continually evolved as age brought more insight and wisdom. One tradition replaces another, not that they are outgrown or abandoned, but that they lead naturally by life experiences to new ways of dealing with life. This is a rebellion born in experience and not an abstraction of an isolated rebel. Particularly because of the rebellion that was the 1960s, I soon discovered the philosophy of the Russian Anarchists of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, and Berkman. With the collapse of the movement in the early 1970s, the veterans and history of the old left became beautiful beacons in the night. The Industrial Workers of the World, Socialist party USA, Communist Party USA, and the Socialist Workers Party became my foundation.

Communicating COVID-19 analyses the changes of everyday communication in the COVID-19 crisis. Exploring how misinformation has spread online throughout the pandemic, the impact of changes on society and the way we communicate, and the effect this has had on the spread of misinformation.

This book discusses the 1918 European socialization debate, its consequences, and its relevance a century later. Following the end of the First World War, the disastrous social and economic situation facing Europe led to calls for socialization of central economic sectors, as well as measures for the improvement of work conditions and social security. This book rekindles the debate, presenting the basic issues of socialization from different European countries and taking into account current developments. The chapters track the socialism debate in Europe from its initial inception in 1918 and examine the ways in which it has shaped the public discourse in the years following, drawing theoretical connections between the conditions that created the environment for the debate to begin and contemporary social and political trends. This book will be of particular interest to graduate students and researchers of socioeconomics, ethics, the history of economic thought, history, and political science.

The first English collection of translated essays, by Chinese literary scholars, writers, and critics, this volume focuses on the legacy of socialist culture and post-socialist phenomena within the context of capitalist globalization. By rethinking socialism, literature, and culture in relation to the intellectual and cultural trends since the start of the reform and by debating the rise of the 'new left' culture, this book seeks to offer critical voices while evoking the themes of the socialist past to bear on the 21st-century Chinese intellectual and cultural scenes.

As capitalist countries continue to celebrate the demise of socialism, Willard F. Enteman makes the startling assertion that capitalism has already ended. Additionally, Enteman argues that industrialized nations are not democratic either. In Managerialism, Enteman explores the fundamental principles of the three dominant world ideologies--capitalism, socialism, and democracy--and proposes that a new ideology, which he calls "managerialism," more accurately describes the current world situation.