A crisis makes you re-think your life. The recent economic crisis is no exception. All of us are now thinking how the world could be run differently. Despite this, a radical alternative has hardly emerged to mobilise the masses, which begs the question: What is radical politics today? In this book, leading academics, politicians, journalists and activists attempt to pinpoint an answer, debating the issues facing radical politics in the 21st Century. Rarely united in their opinions, they collectively interogate the character and spirit of being radical in our times.
Including original contributions from Zygmunt Bauman, Will Hutton, Frank Furedi, Clare Short, Ken Worpole, Nick Cohen, Hilary Wainwright, Paul Kingsnorth, Chantal Mouffe, Terrell Carver, Edward W. Soja, David Chandler, Dora Apel, Doreen Massey, Jason Toynbee, James Martin, Michael J. Watts, Jeremy Gilbert and Jo Littler, Gregor McLennan, Tariq Modood, Amir Saeed & David Bates, Alastair Bonnett, Nigel Thrift, Sheila Jasanoff, Saul Newman, David Featherstone, James Heartfield, Alejandro Colás and Jason Edwards, David Boyle, Saskia Sassen."
"This stimulating and impressively diverse collection of essays helps us to begin re-thinking our predicament. Anyone who finds themselves in agreement with all the authors here must be seriously confused, since several of the pieces offer directly contradictory analyses. But the strength of the book as a whole lies precisely in bringing different political traditions into productive dialogue"
(Red Pepper)
"This is a bold, brave and timely book. As we emerge, blinking into the light after three decades of neo-liberal darkness, Jonathan Pugh has put together a collection of essays that will provoke and provide clues to the question of what comes next; what indeed is radical politics today?"
Neal Lawson (Compass).
"an excellent new book of essays"
(Town and Country Planning Magazine)
"Jonathan Pugh gathers some of the most innovative and insightful voices from Britain and beyond to stage a series of debates on the central issues facing radical politics today. This collection is a model for the kinds of discussion we need to move forward."
Michael Hardt (Duke University).
"At a time when all ideologies are either exhausted or have become irrelevant, the need for a truly radical politics can hardly be exaggerated. Radical politics is about rethinking the common sense, the taken for granted assumptions, of the age. This timely and well-planned collection of essays by distinguished and concerned scholars throws much new light on where we should be looking for new ideas. It represents a major contribution to the ongoing debate on the problems of our times."
Lord Bhikhu Parekh
"In the present moment of rapid and fundamental political and economic change we need sustained critical discussion of the kinds of alternative politics available to us. In What is Radical Politics Today? leading political theorists initiate this timely discussion by addressing both possibilities and obstacles from a wide range of perspectives."
James Tully (University of Victoria).
"With impeccable timing, this volume provides a stimulating range of perspectives on what radical politics can offer during this period of crisis and change. It deserves to be widely read and debated."
Ruth Lister (Loughborough University)
"As the most immediate effects of a global economic and financial crisis seem to be ebbing from our consciousness, the authors in this collection reaffirm the urgent need for a different kind of politics. One after the other they draw a picture of a world ill at ease with itself: addicted to consumption yet unjust in its rewards; obsessed with the idea of the global at the expense of an engagement with the real; aware yet narcissistic. Helpless with fear, paternalism and debt. But the book is, above all, in the words of one contributor 'a challenge to fatalism'. The chapters sketch out a radical politics for the 21st century based on the rediscovery of our human powers to invent and adapt--a rebuilding of the state's management and redistributive capacities, a revaluing of autonomous behaviour and critical judgement, the prioritising of a 'social planet' over a 'social state' and even, a repudiation of near-sacrosanct institutions. No doubt some injunctions will rile, but though this book may fail to comfort, it will not fail to challenge or provoke."
Catherine Fieschi
(Director, Counterpoint, The Think Tank of the British Council)
"There's a world to win, but only if the Left is possessed of bright ideas, inspiring aspirations and brilliant strategies. This book - rich in insight - assembles some of our leading thinkers to consider what sort of Left can unlock the progressive potential contained in this moment of early 21st century crisis. Has the mainstream Left conceded far too much to the liberals and conservatives this last 30 years? If so, what sort of Left can win hearts and minds in this moment of crisis? The answers to these important questions are the stuff of this excellent book."
Noel Castree (Manchester University).
"This is a wonderfully salutary and visionary collection of widely different opinions on how we can think about our world in these 'interesting' times."
Emily Young (Sculptor, and of Penguin Café Orchestra).
"Like an exploding star, the radical Left in the UK has disintegrated and its fragments have flown off in all directions. People who once thought they were engaged in a common project can no longer agree about where they are going, yet alone how they should get there. If you feel radical but confused read these essays. They may make you even more confused, but they may also help you decide where to go next."
Bob Rowthorn (Cambridge University).
"If you are looking for a rich diversity of views and fierce arguments about radical politics today, then this is the book for you!"
Achin Vanaik (Delhi Univeristy).
"With the aim of understanding the forces and boundaries of a genuinely radical politics, this volume begins to interrogate the models, figures and reach of the structureless moment that currently commands political tropology and life."
Avital Ronell (New York University).
"Timely, engaging and bold. This book provides intellectual, moral and political challenge for any reader on a question which urgently needs lucid answers: what is it to be radical today?"
(former Director of Demos, Associate Director of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, and Policy Director for Australia's Deputy Prime Minister).
