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At the edge: On generalized precarity and subversive pragmatism.

Jan 6 2020
It is the peculiarity of our historical time that revolution is not in the cards - so I'm asking if this is not very likely to happen, do we have to give up? I say no, we can find resources for a radical change, without the crutch of a revolution, without the crutch of crisis, without the crutch of utopia - even the wonderful socialist utopia. We do not need it to go in a different direction, the direction against capitalism.

Theorist Albena Azmanova examines the dynamics of post-2008 precarity capitalism, the left's long failure to strike through capitalism's competitive production of profit, and explains why radical change for the precarious multitude is possible without a revolutionary break - but through subversive pragmatism.

Albena is author of Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia from Columbia University Press.

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Guest

Albena Azmanova

Albena Azmanova teaches political and social theory at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies.

 

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