Ramkrishna Mukherjee - The Rise and Fall of the East India Company. A Sociological Approach

This remarkable study of the British East India Company offers great insight into the formation of the Company, its impact on both England and India, and the social forces that shaped its Development. With great detail and rich documentation, Ramakrishna Mukherjee examines a period of 258 years, beginning immediately before the Company s birth and ending with its collapse in 1858. This is an engrossing work and reveals much about what is no doubt one of the most important institutions in the history of British colonialism and of world capitalism generally.

Thomas Piketty - Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021

A chronicle of recent events that have shaken the world, from the author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

“What makes this manifesto noteworthy is that it comes from an economist who gained his reputation as a researcher with vaguely left-of-center sensibilities but was far from a radical. Yet the times are such that even honest moderates are driven to radical remedies.” Robert Kuttner, New York Times

As a correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde, world-renowned economist Thomas Piketty has documented the rise and fall of Trump, the drama of Brexit, Emmanuel Macron’s ascendance to the French presidency, the unfolding of a global pandemic, and much else besides, always from the perspective of his fight for a more equitable world. This collection brings together those articles and is prefaced by an extended introductory essay, in which Piketty argues that the time has come to support an inclusive and expansive conception of socialism as a counterweight against the hypercapitalism that defines our current economic ideology. These essays offer a first draft of history from one of the world’s leading economists and public figures, detailing the struggle against inequalities and tax evasion, in favor of a federalist Europe and a globalization more respectful of work and the environment.

A History of Neoliberalism with Quinn Slobodian

Dan talks to Quinn Slobodian about his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, which tells the story of neoliberalism’s Geneva School including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke and their vision for a new imperial order establishing rules to protect the market from political interference. It’s a movement that begins with nostalgia for the bygone Habsburg Empire, moves on to fights against the decolonized world’s efforts to create a New International Economic Order, and that plays a key role in forming the European Economic Community and the WTO.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lnFIqsYFbi8

А. Рогожин - Отойди от станка!

О двух романах про современный пролетариат, написанных интеллектуалами

Два романа, выбранных мной для рецензии, совпадают по нескольким ключевым параметрам: они оба созданы молодыми авторами, прежде трудившимся по рабочей специальности; они оба повествуют о российском провинциальном пролетариате нулевых годов; они оба написаны из внешней по отношению к героям позиции. И хотя стиль, композиция и сама цель повествования в этих книгах прямо противоположны друг другу, вывод из них следует один и тот же: мир пролетариата абсолютно замкнут как в бытовом, так и в историческом смысле, и лучшее, что можно сделать, оказавшись на производстве, поскорее свалить оттуда. Как я постараюсь показать, Влад Ридош и Эльдар Саттаров именно потому приходят к одному и тому же, что с самого начала идут в противоположные стороны в радикальный натурализм и историзм соответственно.

https://gorky.media/reviews/otojdi-ot-stanka/

The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis

The last quarter century has been marked by the ascension of neoliberalism market deregulation, state decentralization, and reduced political intervention in national economies. Not coincidentally, this period of dramatic institutional change has also seen the emergence of several schools of institutional analysis. Though these schools cut across disciplines, they have remained isolated from and critical of each other. This volume brings together four--rational choice, organizational, historical, and discursive institutionalism to examine the rise of neoliberalism. In doing so, it makes tremendous methodological strides while substantively enlarging our knowledge about neoliberalism.

The book comprises original empirical studies by top scholars from each school of analysis. They examine neoliberalism's rise on three continents and explore changes in macroeconomic policy, labor markets, taxation, banking, and health care. Neoliberalism appears as much more complex, diverse, and contested than is often appreciated. The authors find that there is no convergence toward a common set of neoliberal institutions; that neoliberalism does not incapacitate states; and that neoliberal reform does not necessarily yield greater efficiency than other institutional arrangements. Beyond these important empirical contributions, this book is a methodological milestone in that it compares different schools of institutionalist analysis by seeing how they tackle a common problem. It reveals a second movement within institutionalism one toward rapprochement and cross-fertilization among paradigms and explains how this might be furthered with benefits throughout the social sciences.

Григорий Юдин - Карл Маркс, Макс Вебер и устройство бонапартизма

Современные государства интересным образом сочетают в себе черты демократии и монархии. Президент обладает огромными полномочиями, а народ только голосует и ограничивается тем, что обеспечивает лидеру легитимность. Основы такой системы были заложены в середине XIX века первым французским президентом Луи-Наполеоном Бонапартом, который назвал свой режим «монархией с опорой на массы». Перспективность такого подхода быстро осознали политические мыслители. В этой лекции мы поговорили о реакции Карла Маркса и Макса Вебера. Если Маркс видел в бонапартизме фундаментальную угрозу для демократии, то Вебер предложил проект «плебисцитарной демократии», который должен был обеспечивать демократическую поддержку для сильного и ответственного лидера. Мы выясним, в какой степени идеи Маркса и Вебера продолжают определять современную политику, почему бонапартизм вновь входит в моду и какие препятствия встанут у него на пути.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRbvjG4-x4

Nick Couldry, Ulises Mejias - The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism

Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit.The Costs of Connectionuncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives--our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation.

Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.

Geo Maher - A World Without Police

A well-argued case for rolling back racism by breaking police power

We need the police, right? So unquestioned and unquestionable is their role in our society that few are even willing to consider the alternatives. And while the high-profile killings of Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice and others have rightly increased scrutiny of the police as a peculiar institution, this does little to explain other, equally significant names: Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Renisha McBride, none of whom were killed by police but all of whom were being policed. Something more is going on that needs to be explained, and we are missing something crucial if we focus exclusively on the police. Drawing not only on new data about police violence, interviews with leading voices in Black Lives Matter and beyond, as well as more than a decade of organizing against police brutality, A World Without Police is the first book-length analysis of arguments for abolishing the police.

Jacques Derrida - Psyche: Inventions of the Other, Volume I

Psyche: Inventions of the Other is the first publication in English of the twenty-eight essay collection Jacques Derrida published in two volumes in 1998 and 2003. In Volume I, Derrida advances his reflection on many topics: psychoanalysis, theater, translation, literature, representation, racism, and nuclear war, among others. The essays in this volume also carry on Derrida's engagement with a number of key thinkers and writers: Barthes, Benjamin, de Man, Flaubert, Freud, Heidegger, Lacoue-Labarthe, Levinas, and Ponge. Included in this volume are new or revised translations of seminal essays (for example, "Psyche: Invention of the Other," "The Retrait of Metaphor," "At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am," "Tours de Babel" and "Racism's Last Word"), as well as three essays that appear here in English for the first time.

Matt Myers - Student Revolt: Voices of the Austerity Generation

Whatever happened to the student revolt? In 2010 young people across Britain took to the streets to defy a wave of government attacks on education, increasing tuition fees, and cuts to grants for college students. Months of occupations, kettling and outbreaks of violence ensued, but to what effect? Today, students face new attacks on higher education from the current Conservative government.

Student Revolt tells the story of the year that introduced a generation to the power of mass movement, through the voices of the people involved. Activists', students', university-occupiers', young workers' and politicians' testimonies are woven together to create a narrative which starkly captures both the deep divisions as well as the intense energy that sprung from its actors. The 'Millbank Generation' has since moved on - some fell into political inactivity - but many went on to explore different forms of politics, where they continue to fight. This book will provide a poignant reminder of the revolt for today's activists, as well as an opportunity to reflect on its many lessons.

Григорий Юдин - Миф о российском патернализме. Как рыночные реформы изменили «советского человека»?

Профессор Шанинки рассказал о том, как самостоятельность россиян связана с их деполитизацией и почему проблемы российского общества типичны для современного мира.

В последнее время в либеральной среде распространено убеждение в том, что Россия возвращается в советское время — возвращается политически и экономически. Считается, что российские массы настроены патерналистски: они не желают брать на себя ответственность за экономические решения и склонны активно поддерживать авторитарную власть. При этом произошедшие и продолжающиеся в стране рыночные реформы ничего не изменили по сути: Россия застряла в ряду отстающих стран. В своем выступлении спикер предлагает другой подход к анализу постсоветского общества, опираясь на современную антропологию субъективности. Он показывает, что проблемы, с которыми сегодня сталкиваются россияне (отсутствие надежности, разобщенность, одиночество, враждебность внешней среды), являются не уникальными, а типичными для современного мира.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5T85HqVtHXw

Harry Cleaver - 33 Lessons on Capital: Reading Marx Politically

What is the relevance of Marx's Capital to contemporary political struggles?

This book provides an up-to-date reading of Capital Volume I, emphasizing the relevance of Marx's analysis to everyday twenty-first century struggles. Harry Cleaver's treatise outlines and critiques Marx's analysis chapter by chapter. His unique interpretation of Marx's labour theory of value reveals how every theoretical category of Capital designates aspects of class struggle in ways that help us resist and escape them. At the same time, while rooted within the tradition of workerism, he understands the working class to include not only the industrial proletariat but also unwaged peasants, housewives, children and students. A challenge to scholars and an invaluable resource for students and activists today.