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nxnw4321's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
I learnt so much from this book - about different conceptualisations of socialism, about the why of socialism and the why nots of capitalism. It’s an amazing tool for developing your arguments and one of the best introductory texts I’ve come across.
It’s not particularly fashionable to read analytical Marxist theory these days, but I think leftists of all stripes could benefit from reading this and more books about the practicalities and theories of socialist transformation in a context that probably won’t allow for a revolutionary rupture in our lifetime.
It’s not particularly fashionable to read analytical Marxist theory these days, but I think leftists of all stripes could benefit from reading this and more books about the practicalities and theories of socialist transformation in a context that probably won’t allow for a revolutionary rupture in our lifetime.
annepw's review
3.0
Wright is obsessively organized and easy to follow. I really appreciate the project that Wright has undertaken, both in this book and in the Real Utopias series as a whole. My main gripe with this volume is Wright's obsessive focus on democracy, when his attention might be better served by a focus on the economic.
wellworn_soles's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
More to come!
sett's review
4.0
In this book, acclaimed sociologist Erik O. Wright has mapped out a framework for thinking about alternative possible societies and social mechanisms. Societies that are more "just and humane" than the world in which live today. He does so in such a sharp, concise fashion, it could almost be described as scientific precision[1].
Despite coming from a strong Marxist tradition (but ultimately deeming Marxist alternatives "unsatisfactory"), Wright has written the book with a "broad, relatively popular audience in mind". You don't have to be familiar with academic writing, sociology or have had any previous exposure to so-called leftist literature at all to appreciate this book.
Wright acknowledges that we now live in a world where radical visions are "often mocked rather than taken seriously". He says that the belief in the possibility of radical alternatives is what shaped the gains we have in contemporary society. To expand on that point he begins the book by offering examples of "Real Utopias", microcosms within society that are radical alternative institutions: Wikipedia, Participatory Budgeting, Mondragon and Unconditional Basic Income.
The rest book itself is divided into three parts:
Part I presents a basic diagnosis and critique of the current system, capitalism. I felt like simply reading Part I was rewarding enough as Wright has probably written the most powerful concise critiques of capitalism - 11 of them.
Part II discusses the problems of proposed alternatives: statist-socialism, associational democracy, social capitalism, participatory socialism, and so forth. For someone with zero background on sociology, this was absolutely fascinating and empowering to have the tools to think about this.
Finally Part III deals with the issue of transformation, and covers the different strategies that can be employed to bring about these utopian alternatives. In this part he explores different models of transformation from revolutionary communist ("ruptural") to anarchists' ("interstitial") and social democratic ("symbiotic").
I view the book itself as a comprehensive set of tools with which we can understand social conditions and phenomena in the present and by understanding, consciously choose strategies for the future.
[1] "Emancipatory social science, in its broadest terms, seeks to generate knowledge relevant to the collective project of challenging human oppression and creating the conditions in which people can live flourishing lives." (http://p2pfoundation.net/Emancipatory_Social_Science)
Despite coming from a strong Marxist tradition (but ultimately deeming Marxist alternatives "unsatisfactory"), Wright has written the book with a "broad, relatively popular audience in mind". You don't have to be familiar with academic writing, sociology or have had any previous exposure to so-called leftist literature at all to appreciate this book.
Wright acknowledges that we now live in a world where radical visions are "often mocked rather than taken seriously". He says that the belief in the possibility of radical alternatives is what shaped the gains we have in contemporary society. To expand on that point he begins the book by offering examples of "Real Utopias", microcosms within society that are radical alternative institutions: Wikipedia, Participatory Budgeting, Mondragon and Unconditional Basic Income.
The rest book itself is divided into three parts:
Part I presents a basic diagnosis and critique of the current system, capitalism. I felt like simply reading Part I was rewarding enough as Wright has probably written the most powerful concise critiques of capitalism - 11 of them.
Part II discusses the problems of proposed alternatives: statist-socialism, associational democracy, social capitalism, participatory socialism, and so forth. For someone with zero background on sociology, this was absolutely fascinating and empowering to have the tools to think about this.
Finally Part III deals with the issue of transformation, and covers the different strategies that can be employed to bring about these utopian alternatives. In this part he explores different models of transformation from revolutionary communist ("ruptural") to anarchists' ("interstitial") and social democratic ("symbiotic").
I view the book itself as a comprehensive set of tools with which we can understand social conditions and phenomena in the present and by understanding, consciously choose strategies for the future.
[1] "Emancipatory social science, in its broadest terms, seeks to generate knowledge relevant to the collective project of challenging human oppression and creating the conditions in which people can live flourishing lives." (http://p2pfoundation.net/Emancipatory_Social_Science)
kevin_carson's review
5.0
Reviewed at length here https://c4ss.org/content/47250 I put it in the autonomism shelf because it's related, but EOW's not actually an autonomist.
mburnamfink's review
3.0
With all thew uproar these days about how "NObama is a Socialist-Kenyan-Marxist-Nazi-Muslim", reading what an actual socialist believes is a vital antidote. Wright simply wants radical socialist democracy; the People empowered to make collective decisions over their own lives, with Capital and the State reduced until they can provide necessary services, but they no longer threaten the common welfare. While this is an admirable goal, this book is not quite up to the task. It feels musty, and set up bold claims and analytic frameworks while flinching away from the ultimate conclusions of what it would mean to live in a world of radical egalitarianism.
The Marxist analysis of the structural flaws of capitalism, and the way in which economic competition select for bad behavior is remains deadly accurate, but in many other respects, even this modernized Marxism fails to explain how capitalism will develop, and how it will develop given the admitted failure of the homogenization of the working class and the labor theory of productivity over the 20th century (two traditional Marxist keystone theories).
Society remains the most important actor in the book, and the least-well defined. Mutual solidarity and discussion is all well and good, but Wright doesn't quite develop the differences in society between the scales of say, a small worker-owned collective, a town, a nation, and the entire world. Ambitious plans for universal living wages and social ownership leave aside the massive inequalities between the 1st and 3rd world, and the 99% and the 1%. Finally, Wright has the typical Marxist valorization of the Worker, without considering how essentially non-economic activities fit into his utopian framework. This relentless materialism is both the strength of Marxism, and also its weakness, as it leaves a hollow "sociality" to battle against the Right's ideology of "liberty"
The Marxist analysis of the structural flaws of capitalism, and the way in which economic competition select for bad behavior is remains deadly accurate, but in many other respects, even this modernized Marxism fails to explain how capitalism will develop, and how it will develop given the admitted failure of the homogenization of the working class and the labor theory of productivity over the 20th century (two traditional Marxist keystone theories).
Society remains the most important actor in the book, and the least-well defined. Mutual solidarity and discussion is all well and good, but Wright doesn't quite develop the differences in society between the scales of say, a small worker-owned collective, a town, a nation, and the entire world. Ambitious plans for universal living wages and social ownership leave aside the massive inequalities between the 1st and 3rd world, and the 99% and the 1%. Finally, Wright has the typical Marxist valorization of the Worker, without considering how essentially non-economic activities fit into his utopian framework. This relentless materialism is both the strength of Marxism, and also its weakness, as it leaves a hollow "sociality" to battle against the Right's ideology of "liberty"
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