Erik Olin Wright was one of the most brilliant and world renowned social scientists of our era. He left us in 2019 with an unfinished project – the articulation of class and utopia. Wright’s sociological Marxism embarked from an original class analysis, with its trade-mark contradictory class locations, that empirically mapped class structures across the globe. In response to the collapse of communism and the rise of neoliberalism, Wright turned to the premise of class analysis, that is the possibility of socialism. Forsaking Marxism’s allergy to utopian thinking, Wright searched the planet for institutions that might sow the seeds of socialism – such as cooperatives, participatory budgeting, basic income grants – institutions that might dissolve racial, gender, and class inequalities by eroding capitalism. His last book How to be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century, published posthumously in over a dozen languages has become a manifesto for a new world, bringing together and inspiring social movement activists.
The essays in this volume pay tribute to his generative theory, his crystalline teaching and his personal warmth.
The authors – all close colleagues or former students – wrestle with the relationship between his two expanding research programs, class analysis and real utopias. They burn the candle from either end, all galvanized by Wright’s genius and vision to reinvent Marxism.
Contributions by:
Michael Burawoy,
Gay Seidman,
Greta R. Krippner
Edited by:
Michael Burawoy,
Gay Seidman
Imprint: Verso Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 338g
ISBN: 9781804294727
ISBN 10: 1804294721
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 03 September 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction: Advancing Wright's Unfinished Project Michael Burawoy and Gay Seidman Part I THE LIFE AND WORK OF ERIK WRIGHT A Tale of Two Marxisms Michael Burawoy Class, Gender and Utopian Community Gay Seidman Love and Marxism Greta R. Krippner Wright's Emancipatory Theory and Practice Kwang-Yeong Shin Part II FROM REAL UTOPIAS TO CLASS ANALYSIS If You're a Socialist You Need the Real Utopias Project, whether You Like It or Not Harry Brighouse Class Counts for Real Utopias: The Implementation of Free Mass Transit in Seven Brazilian Cities João Alexandre Peschanski The Cooperative Market Economy: The Promise and Challenge of Mondragon Marta Soler-Gallart Who Will Help Decommodify Housing? Race, Property, Class, and the Struggle for Social Housing in the United States H. Jacob Carlson and Gianpaolo Baiocchi The Emancipation Network: Discovering Anticapitalist Institutions within Brazilian Capitalism Ruy Braga Part III FROM CLASS ANALYSIS TO REAL UTOPIAS The Politics of Contradictory Class Locations: A View from India Rina Agarwala The Class Basis of Anticapitalism: Labor Politics in Contemporary Argentina Rodolfo Elbert From Class Analysis to Real Utopias and Back Again: Erik Olin Wright in Conversation with Left Populism Peter Ramand Fifteen Dollars and a Revolution: Building Anticapitalist Workers' Movements Stephanie Luce
Gay Seidman teaches sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where for many years, her office was next to Erik Wright's. Her books include Manufacturing Militance and Beyond the Boycott. Michael Burawoy teaches sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author of several books including The Politics of Production: Factory Regimes under Capitalism and Socialism and most recently Public Sociology: Between Utopia and Anti-Utopia. He was a close friend and literary executor of Erik Wright.
