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Envisioning Real Utopias Paperback – June 14, 2010
by Erik Olin Wright (Author)
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Rising inequality of income and power, along with the recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet there has been a global retreat by the Left: on the assumption that liberal capitalism is the only game in town, political theorists tend to dismiss as utopian any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations. As Fredric Jameson first argued, it is now easier for us to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to capitalism.
Erik Olin Wright’s Envisioning Real Utopias is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. Building on a lifetime’s work analyzing the class system in the developed world, as well as exploring the problem of the transition to a socialist alternative, Wright has now completed a systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors. Envisioning Real Utopias aims to put the social back into socialism, laying the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.
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Print length
416 pages
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June 14, 2010
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“[Wright] builds a strong case for an emancipatory social science.”—E. Kingsolver, Choice
“A benchmark contribution to necessary radical thinking.”—Göran Therborn
“Encyclopedic in its breadth, daunting in its ambition, this is the culmination of Erik Olin Wright’s revamping of Marxism ... Only a thinker of Wright’s genius could sustain such a badly needed political imagination without losing analytical clarity and precision.”—Michael Burawoy, UC Berkeley
“Hugely rich and stimulating ... An incisive diagnosis of the harms done by capitalism; a masterful synthesis of the best work in political sociology and political economy over the past thirty years; and innovative theoretical framework for conceptualizing both the goals of progressive change and the strategies for their achievement; and inspiring survey of actually existing challenges to capitalism that have arisen within capitalism itself; and a compelling essay on the relation between the desirable, the viable and the achievable. Anyone interested in the future of leftist politics has to read this book.”—Adam Swift, Balliol College, Oxford
“This book is both a manifesto and a guidebook: an argument for taking institutional design seriously, and a guide to how to do that. It’s a book that sociologists will want to read, but also, frankly, that everyone in political theory and philosophy should be reading too.”—Crooked Timber
“A fascinating book.”—Guy Aitchison, openDemocracy
About the Author
Erik Olin Wright is Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of many books, including Classes, Interrogating Inequality, Class Counts, Deepening Democracy (with Archon Fung), and Envisioning Real Utopias. For more information on Envisioning Real Utopias and the Real Utopias project, and to access book content, please visit realutopias.org.
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Customer Reviews: 4.4 out of 5 stars 21 ratings
Top reviews from the United States
Common Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars The book was stimulating for thought and offers a viable sociological model for conceptualizing egalitarian alternatives.
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
The negative reviews of this book are ridiculous and read like they were written by Jacoby's present and former students. Read the forum on the Crooked Timber blog on the book, which offers a serious discussion by serious thinkers of its various strengths and weaknesses. I give it five stars because the book was stimulating for thought and offers a viable sociological model for conceptualizing egalitarian alternatives to the present order.
2 people found this helpful
RF.Economics
5.0 out of 5 stars Key questions, insightful answers
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2014
Verified Purchase
Among the recent books that try to answer "what is to be done?," I believe Wright's is the most comprehensive and from which one can most benefit. Nonetheless, two aspects were unsatisfactory. First, the book is written mostly with advanced capitalist countries in mind. Thus, it does not treat adequately issues pertaining most of the world's population, and where most anti-capitalist transformative experiments have taken place at national levels. His dividing of strategies into ruptural, interstitial, and symbiotic logics is an extremely useful framework. However, he immediately discards ruptural strategies, recognizes it is clear interstitial strategies will by themselves never cumulatively transform the system, and recognizes symbiotic strategies have actually strengthened capitalist hegemony more than undermined it. From his exposition, it is clear (in my opinion) that the solution is to combine symbiotic/interstitial strategies while applying phases of rupture. Nevertheless, he doesn't seem to tackle the messy issue of how to combine the three logics, when, and where. In any case, he is asking the fundamental questions, provides insightful answers, and is a must read for both activists and academics. Even if one disagrees with some of his conclusions, as I do, it is certainly a worthwhile read.
11 people found this helpful
suw
4.0 out of 5 stars eyeopener on cooperatives
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2012
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When working with developing society this book is food for thoughts. He's description of how worker cooperatives are some of the real utopias is so real and it's amazing that so few know of this way of doing business in a responsible way.
5 people found this helpful
Bee
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
Great book, great author
One person found this helpful
AutonomeusTop Contributor: Classic Rock
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent analysis of paths forward for egalitarians
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2011
Erik Olin Wright has done a great service with his latest, ENVISIONING REAL UTOPIAS. He applies his analytical powers (Wright is a founder of "analytical marxism") to the question of how to move beyond capitalism. This 373-page book continues the Real Utopias Project which Wright began with others in the early 1990s after the collapse of the USSR, which has so far led to six books from Verso and this new one. According to Wright, what he and his collaborators "...wanted to achieve was a clear elaboration of workable institutional principles that could inform emancipatory alternatives to the existing world."
One of Wright's contributions is to separate socialism from statism, so that capitalism becomes one of three possibilities. Not only the right, but the left as well, has come to conflate socialism and statism, and it is a crucial step toward mental as well as social emancipation to stop reinforcing the right-wing's narrative by supporting this conflation.
Here is the table of contents:
1) Introduction: Why Real Utopias?
2) The Tasks of Emancipatory Social Science
I) Diagnosis and Critique
3) What's So Bad About Capitalism?
II) Alternatives
4) Thinking About Alternatives to Capitalism
5) The Socialist Compass
6) Real Utopias I: Social Empowerment and the State
7) Real Utopias II: Social Empowerment and the Economy
III) Transformation
8) Elements of a Theory of Transformation
9) Ruptural Transformation
10) Interstitial Transformation
11) Symbiotic Transformation
Conclusion: Making Utopias Real
Ruptural transformation is basically revolutionary or Leninist, interstitial transformation is basically anarchist, and symbiotic transformation is basically social democratic. Wright does not advocate one or the other, but analyzes the obstacles, potential benefits and limitations of each. Clearly he leans toward symbiotic or social democratic transformation, but he is aware that so far it has not led beyond capitalism. He concludes by calling for creative and energetic experimentation guided by the "socialist compass" of social empowerment.
Russell Jacoby threw a tantrum and called it a review of this book, but that's his problem. If you think that simplistic emotionalism is going to do the job of replacing capitalism with an egalitarian world, then this is not your book. If you think, to the contrary, that it is going to be difficult and might require some serious thought, then do not be dissuaded. (Jacoby also attacked sociology in its entirety, and I am a sociologist, so I am not inclined to take him seriously. He's just a historian and an essayist.)
This book is of great potential value for anyone on the left trying to think about how to move forward in the 21st century!
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30 people found this helpful
Adam S. Hayes
5.0 out of 5 stars The road to prosperity and dignity
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2020
A straightforward way to understand what's wrong with contemporary society and how to fix it, without being radical.
Ryan M. Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars An important book for our times
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2011
I would advise that you do NOT read Russell Jacoby's review in Dissent. It's a mean-spirited and purely ad hominen attack by a crank who just complains about the book's "jargon," which is like shooting fish in a barrell when it comes to academic sociologists. Wright and his colleages have been doing research all over the world (not just for this book, but for a whole series of Real Utopias)on how people have experimented wiith alternative forms of social organization and political participation. When our current non-democratic system of un-free market capitalism comes crashing down, we're all going to be thankful that they did this research so we can learn how to start living like human beings again. Look people, sometimes reading involves learning a little jargon.
20 people found this helpful
Shawn Parkhurst
4.0 out of 5 stars Wright on.
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2013
I have to agree with Louis Proyect on this. If Jacoby doesn't like a book, it is almost certainly worth reading. Wright keeps changing his mind as he learns more and that seems admirable.
4 people found this helpful
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James Thomas Giblin
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2018
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excellent read.
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===
Envisioning Real Utopias
by Erik Olin Wright
4.09 · Rating details · 202 ratings · 27 reviews
Rising inequality of income and power, along with the recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet there has been a global retreat by the Left: on the assumption that liberal capitalism is the only game in town, political theorists tend to dismiss as utopian any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations. As Fredric Jameson first argued, it is now easier for us to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to capitalism.
Erik Olin Wright’s Envisioning Real Utopias is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. Building on a lifetime’s work analyzing the class system in the developed world, as well as exploring the problem of the transition to a socialist alternative, Wright has now completed a systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors. Envisioning Real Utopias aims to put the social back into socialism, laying the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century. (less)
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Steffi
Apr 01, 2019Steffi rated it it was amazing
Regrettably, Erik Olin Wright (EOW) had to die (January this year) in order for me to finally embark on his work. Since his passing, I have read the most wonderful obituaries by many of his former students - many quite famous in their own right by now - leaving me thinking what a great human being and teacher EOW must have been.
On the other hand, when the book 'Envisioning Real Utopias' came out in 2010, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as now in 2019. In 2010, things were too depressing and hopeless to think about an alternative to capitalism in earnest. Now, for the first time in decades, we are actually, potentially, very close to begin implementing socialism in the Western world. It's kind of high time to move beyond the socialist rhetoric (hear, hear) and get down to business: socialism - what does that actually mean?
This is where EOW's 'real utopias' comes in - as a 'no bullshit Marxist' (or 'analytical Marxist'), EOW is not interested in the fantasy of 'smashing capitalism' which he considers a) not viable and b) probably not emancipatory, and explores other transformative strategies and principles to transform capitalism into an emancipatory project. While some of this reads social democratic ('taming capitalism'), the ultimate aim is to weaken capitalist power structures to transform these and to exploit the cracks within capitalism to build real-life, non-capitalist alternatives within capitalism ('interstitial strategies' - there's a new word for ya) which could become more dominant features of the transforming mode of production (think wikipedia or worker cooperatives).
Most importantly, I suppose, is the proposition of principles for an emancipatory project: what's required to move towards socialism of the 21st century, is a 'democratization of democracy' or radical democracy - having a socialist party in power does not equal socialism - electoral takeover (Bernie) could be one of the many elements required to embark on a massive reorganization (based on popular support) of the world we know it (fucked up, in crisis).
Too bad EOW had to die at a time where his massive research project 'real utopias' (for which he toured the world for years) is becoming most relevant. We really need it now. I think the left has taken note of it. For sure, John McDonnel's 'The Economy for the Many' (UK Labour's manifesto) has EOW's hand writing all over it.
(less)
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Michael Burnam-Fink
Nov 11, 2011Michael Burnam-Fink rated it liked it
Shelves: 2011, academic, utopia
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" (less)
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Malcolm
Mar 06, 2012Malcolm rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: marxism-and-the-left
To speak of real utopias is to be paradoxical, given that the OED (for instance) defines it as “an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect” – and while cynics may see the paradox as lying in the ideal of perfection, the paradox of course lies in the utopia as imagined (and therefore unreal – so a real utopia is more than a paradox, it is an oxymoron). Yet, ironically, real utopias are essential aspects of social and political life, action and a desire for change. The length of this ‘review’ – and it is pretty long – is a sign of the importance of this flawed book: rather than about 1600 words this piece could easily have been 5000 words.
This book is, however, about so much more than some kind of naïve thinking, the kinds of utopian retreats from the world that we have seen so often in a wide range of political and social activities – from hippie communes to reactionary survivalist enclaves – or in the abstract thinking of so much that shapes contemporary economic and social policy; if the Rational Economic Man of classical economics and imperatives of monetarist and other forms of neo-liberal thought are not utopian then I am not sure what is. In this book, Wright seems to be trying to draw together some conclusions from work he has been doing and guiding for the last 20 years or so in the Real Utopias Project, an attempt to revisit, revise and rejuvenate ideas at the centre of socialism. He does this through the simple notion of putting the social back into socialism.
The upshot is an intriguing, challenging and exciting but ultimately uneven and flawed book. At the heart of the argument is an important attempt to move beyond statist (or state-centred) political alternatives and strategies. One of the things that the 20th century history of the left has taught us is that seizing control of the state as a means to liberation is, at best, a highly problematic approach and at worst probably not a suitable means to building a new world. Wright’s approach through the Real Utopias Project (and earlier) has been to develop a focus on civil society – those social institutions that are neither part of the state nor directly economic agents, forces or institutions, that is, (as he puts it on p 119) “the sphere of interaction in which people voluntarily form associations of different sorts for various purposes”. He also, quite properly, notes that in many cases ‘voluntary’ can be a problematic notion.
Based on this emphasis on civil society, he explores what he calls a ‘social compass’ – a series of articulations of three domains of power – economic, state and social (civil society) – as they may influence the allocation of resources and the control of production and distribution (i.e., the economy), to put the social back into socialism. This sketch of strategic approaches to change and the socio-political order of society is framed by two other characteristics, a theory of justice incorporating both social and political forms and a theory of democracy incorporating representative, direct and associational aspects, that combine to frame a theory of radical democratic egalitatianism.
Wright is, however, primarily a sociologist working within an emancipatory social science framework so his approach to social alternatives is also grounded in three criteria: desirability – that is, the extent to which the proposals would eliminate or ameliorate the problems identified in the analysis (what he calls diagnosis & critique), viability – or whether they would produce the desired consequences – and third, achieveability – or whether, given the existing social conditions and balance of social forces they are achieveable. This latter requirement – achieveability – is not, for Wright, a constraint producing a form of lowest common denominator reformism, but a requirement to bear in mind existing conditions in developing approaches to transformation that are intended in the longer term to produce the transformations leading to the desirable social alternative. This means that in his view any theory (or approach to) transformation must encapsulate a theory of social reproduction, a theory of the gaps and contradictions in the process of social reproduction, an understanding of the underlying dynamics of change and the likely trajectories of unintended consequences and finally a theory of collective actors, strategies and struggles. The section on the tasks and approaches of emancipatory social science is an extremely good outline of the sorts of approaches necessary in developing applied scholarly interventions to social, cultural and political struggles.
The core of the book is then turned over to exploring this complex of ideas – radical democratic egalitarian approaches to forms of economies where civil society (social power) is the dominant social force. This exploration is based in a consideration of a series of examples including participatory budgeting (such as in Porto Allegro), universal basic incomes, on-line communities (through an assessment of wikipedia), economic cooperatives (with a focus on Mondragon in the Basque country). These cases then allow him to tease out some of the strengths and weakness of various of the articulations of economic, state and social power. The essential component of all of this is that this approach to social change relies on an analysis that sees any socio-economic condition as hybrid, so a capitalist society also includes a range of economic practices that are non-capitalist as well as anti-capitalist.
In building this case he also outlines eleven compelling criticisms of capitalism:
1. its class relations perpetuate eliminable forms of human suffering;
2. it blocks the universalisation of conditions for expansive human flourishing;
3. it perpetuates eliminable deficits in individual freedom and autonomy;
4. it violates liberal egalitarian principles of social justice;
5. it is inefficient in crucial respects (such as in the calculation of full economic costs);
6. it has systematic bias towards consumerism;
7. it is environmentally destructive;
8. its drive to commodify threatens broadly held values;
9. in the context of nation states, it fuels militarism and imperialism;
10. it corrodes community; and
11. it limits democracy
and in doing so he mounts a compelling critique of orthodox Marxism as not wrong in its analysis but in need of revision of its assessment of the effects of capitalism as necessarily leading to socialist transformation.
So far, so good – but then comes the weakness and source of uneven-ness: the theory of transformation. He proposes three forms of transformation: rupture (associated with ‘revolutionary’ socialism); interstitial transformation (associated anarchism); and symbiotic transformation (associated with social democracy/’reformist’ socialism). This typology is a good start, and one that we can work with and develop, as is his view that effective social transformation needs to incorporate all three approaches if we want to build meaningful alternatives. The discussion is, however, unbalanced to the extent that its usefulness is limited. Ruptural and interstitial transformations merit comparatively brief discussions at fairly abstract levels shaped by Wright’s dependence on Adam Przeworski’s analytical Marxist work on the transition to socialism (most obvious in the discussion of ‘ruptural’ transformation). The discussion of ‘symbiotic’ transformation however descends into a detailed-to-the-point-of-deadening attempt to undermine critiques of ‘reformism’ as class compromise based on a fairly arcane discussion of the balance between employers’ class power and workers’ associational influence in forms of capitalist economies. In doing so Wright seems to lose sight of many of the consequences of his eleven criticisms of capitalism in favour of a form of rational choice Marxism, and to an extent of the big picture. As a consequence, he seems to place too much emphasis on ‘achieveabliity’ rather than desirability.
It may be that my concern here is a question of a difference in the assessment of the balance of forces in contemporary capitalism linked in part to the passage of events since Wright wrote the book – it was published in 2010 (with the preface dated July 2009). In the interim we have seen the death of Mohammed Bouazizi and all that led to including the occupation of Tahrir Square and its various consequences, the emergence of the Occupy movement including social forces such as los indignados and the vital social and political struggles of workers such as those in Wright’s home state of Wisconsin, the precariat in Spain, Greece and elsewhere in the EU, and of a mass social movement that came to wider consciousness with a few tents in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, Syntagma Square in Athens, Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan or outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London and in doing so showed the tip of a much wider social movement. I suspect not, however; Wright has long standing links with the analytical Marxism group whose work I have often found limited in their emphasis on rational choice approaches even as I share many of their concerns about some of the more teleological elements of Marxism which I hold alongside other concerns about socialist strategy and tactics premised on the leadership of a monolithic vanguard party.
My concern about the theory of transformation Wright proposes is, however, at a level of detail and is raised as what might once have been called a comradely critique. For too long we on the left have accentuated what separates us, leading to a fractured political movement that often led to a sectarianism that has hindered our work. Wright has given us rich, challenging, sophisticated analysis of contemporary social and economic circumstances, begun to outline the shape of a strategic programme, reminded us of the important place of emancipatory social scientific approaches in both our analysis and our visions of a better future. More that all of these things, however, Wright has also challenged us to consider the place of the alternatives that shape our social relations in the here-and-now and the way they build a better world in the time-to-come; that is, the essential role of our attempts to build real utopias now in the longer term struggles for a better world. This book should have a vital place in the current debates about the shape of the contemporary politics of the left; put it alongside the vibrant debates emerging form the Occupy movement, and my currently favoured Marta Harnecker’s superb Rebuilding the Left .
Essential reading. (less)
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Ray
Jan 29, 2013Ray rated it it was amazing
A hopeful and encouraging look at ways to work within the capitalistic framework with the aim to improve economic, social, and political equality. Well-researched, with a look at efforts like the Mondragon cooperative and how they presently work, framed in a larger discussion providing a social theory in which we can evaluate economic systems in terms of how just they are for their participants. A definite must-read for those interested in economic and social justice.
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Andrew
Nov 28, 2010Andrew rated it it was amazing
Shelves: philosophy, leftism-marxism
A very clear and sober look at the options and possibilities of socialism in the present-future. Wright eschews being any kind of prophet or revolutionary. His appeal to socialism carries an urgency, but Wright continually warns that it's not a transformation that can happen with narrow-minded acts of will, but requires experimentation and an openness for strategic change. (less)
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Clare
Apr 23, 2019Clare rated it it was amazing
Following a talk given by one of my comrades, I determined to read the late, great Erik Olin Wright's Envisioning Real Utopias rather than just grabbing little excerpts of his work on class analysis off the internet. Judging by the comments made by several comrades at the talk, Envisioning Real Utopias is, or at least should be, considered one of the modern classics of socialist theory — it's been widely read and widely beloved in the (admittedly rather small) world of people who read left theory; there are comrades who have acquired multiple copies and lent them to people (sometimes not getting them back — so basically, it's the Good Omens of left theory), which certainly indicates a certain stature. Despite my current level of burnout, which is hovering around "Has to stop and play FreeCell on my phone every two pages" levels and has been for months, I finally made it through all 400 pages.
It was definitely worth it. Stylistically, it's fairly accessible by the standards of "full-length theory books written by professional sociologists"; it's certainly not a breezy read but it's pretty good at explaining the jargon it has to use and is otherwise a readable introduction to the subject matter for a reasonably well-educated adult reader. The tone is decidedly not polemic, which can be a nice change of pace when reading leftist writings; it takes a fairly evenhanded, nuanced approach to sorting through the various criticisms and counter-criticisms of each topic it covers. It is also nice and straightforwardly organized: There is a prefatory section, explaining the Real Utopias project and Wright's understanding of the tasks of "emancipatory social science"; there is a diagnostic section, in which he critiques arguments in favor of capitalism and explores why an alternative is desirable; there is an "alternatives" section, which looks at seven different alternative structural proposals and a handful of case studies in building non-capitalist institutions of various sorts; and lastly, there is a "transformation" section, which discusses different approaches to creating social change. Since it covers a lot of ground, some of the coverage of specific projects must necessarily be a bit shallow, but it's meticulously cited so the reader has more than enough resources on hand if they wish to learn about, say, the Mondragon cooperatives in greater depth. And the information that is there is still quite solid and informative — this isn't a book to rip through; there's far too much to chew on.
I think this book is an especially good fit for DSA comrades who want to move beyond The ABCs of Socialism-level stuff because it fits very well within the DSA's general multitendency ethos. Some other organizations — and even comrades within DSA itself — sometimes lament our lack of a single political "line," seeming to take it for granted that not having one unified plan for smashing capitalism means we're just hopelessly bumbling along. Olin Wright does a good job of laying out the the reasoning for taking a "democratic experimentalist" approach to social change and unifies a seemingly disparate bundle of projects under the guiding principles of a "socialist compass." The book doesn't so much set out a method for building socialism as it does set out methods for figuring out how to build socialism, which, considering nobody has actually figured out how to build socialism yet (and anyone who says they have is selling something — in this case, probably newspapers) is much more useful.
Originally posted at Democratic experimentalism and the socialist compass. (less)
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Marius CEO
Sep 22, 2021Marius CEO rated it really liked it
Shelves: side
It made me dream, at first.
In the end, however, it made me act.
Wonderful book.
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Sett Wai
Jan 31, 2015Sett Wai rated it really liked it
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...) (less)
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Pablo
Dec 17, 2019Pablo rated it it was amazing
A clearly structured and lucidly written book on "real utopian" alternatives to capitalism. A draft version is freely available online at the author's webpage. The book is divided in three parts (and some introductory chapters):
The first part discusses critiques of capitalism. The author sets some broad values and attempts to discuss how capitalism goes against such values. This part can be read independently and I would say it is a good summary of contemporary anticapitalist thought.
The second part discusses specific alternatives to capitalism from the perspective of socialism, understood as a democratic power over the economy; there is first a brief discussion of the ways that different kinds of power interact and then there are two chapters that discuss specific alternatives to the liberal democracy model. There is a first chapter on improving democracy (as a way to prevent authoritarianism in statist socialism) and a second chapter on economical proposals.
There is one proposal that is very US-specific and there are other parts (the one that discusses Wikipedia) that are somewhat outdated (who remembes Knol nowadays?), but there are some interesting proposals too.
The third and last part discusses how to get those proposals into practice, through different leftist strategies. There are chapters on revolutionary praxis, prefigurativism and class compromise. This part was mostly theoretical but was nonetheless interesting and a decent summary of some of the strategies endorsed by different ideological currents.
I overall liked the book a lot and it brought some new ideas into mind, but I suspect that a more recent book by the author might summarize their thought better. I have yet to read one of these, though. (less)
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Lafargue
Jun 26, 2019Lafargue rated it really liked it
Excellent book - very clear and honest, obviously everyone will have their quibbles and objections but an extremely valuable contribution to the debate around principles of political-economic institution design.
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Ethan
Jul 30, 2019Ethan rated it it was amazing
Wright clearly distinguishes six types of democratic-socialist relations between the economy, state, and civic associations. He gives excellent descriptions of really-existing examples of each type from around the world (Mondragon, Porto Alegre, Meidner Plan, etc).
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Jane
Feb 18, 2017Jane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: non-fiction, politics, philosophy, sociology
Ein tolles Buch. Hoch intelligent und interessant und trotzdem verständlich und praxisorientiert.
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Duncan McLaren
Oct 01, 2014Duncan McLaren rated it really liked it
Shelves: non-fiction
Not a light read, but an illuminating exploration of the prospects for social empowerment in the modern world.
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Kevin Carson
Dec 15, 2016Kevin Carson rated it it was amazing
Shelves: autonomism
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. (less)
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George
Sep 18, 2020George rated it really liked it
This book is sharp in the way that a well-honed axe is. Robust, yet delicate. Forceful, but only if applied correctly. Dangerous or self-defeating if not paid attention to carefully. Wright brings exacting — and at times plodding — prose and analysis to his study of the ills of our current economic system, and imaginings of a new one.
His measured approach will no doubt frustrate many would-be revolutionaries. “Ruptural politics” has distinctive limits, he says. Indeed it seems “implausible” that ...more
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Michael
Mar 31, 2021Michael rated it liked it
Shelves: nonfiction, political-theory
A clear, methodical and pragmatic approach to thinking about the possibilities of deep social change, and different paths over and through the barriers and opposition to be expected. Well worth reading for leftists who want to be able to describe the change they want to see in the world and some credible thoughts on how to get there. Wright is especially good on describing in some detail real examples of people working within and around the limits of market-driven capitalism, like Quebec’s Chantier de l’economie social, the Mondragon cooperatives, and Porto Alegre’s experiments with participatory budgeting. I think he’s especially helpful in describing ways to cope with the limits of our ability to understand and predict large-scale social change (much less drive and direct it), by adopting an iterative, experimental (you might say Bayesian) approach of revising plans and correcting course as we go. He’s also good on disentangling the distinct but related dynamics of economic, social and political power.
The writing is lucid enough, but there is a bit of the academic sociologist in the structure of the chapters, which tend to bookend the discussion between the old “In this chapter we will see that…” and the equally thrilling “To summarize, in this chapter we saw…” Wright could also pursue the deep connections between racism and capitalism; those connections surface here and there, but there's not a sustained engagement with how deeply entwined the two are and how that should affect strategy.
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Ceren Hic
Aug 24, 2020Ceren Hic rated it it was amazing
A must read for anybody that uses the words of capitalism, freedom, revolution, politics, system, inequality, democracy, socialism etc. For political science faculties as well as economics,governance, education. The book educates very well on capitalism and alternative institutional models to expand social and political justice. Very comprehensive book that deals with complex systems and uncertainty of unintended consequences out of which we can create and actualise real utopias. It is written very to the point but with the humble tone that we cannot know for sure. The highlight is to put it so clearly that the biggest limit to abundance is the creativity of the designer of any transformation or intervention. And we can bring about and manage sustainable transformation towards increasing social power over the state and economic power only through human will for voluntarily association and positive-sum collaboration. We need a diversity of peoples,methods and approaches for change towards conditions of human flourishing for all and political decision making power for all that is affected by that decision.
So grateful for this book, rest in peace Erik Olin Wright. Further recommended reading that combines: Surviving the Future, Systems Thinking, Theory U, One Straw Revolution, the Earth Path, Speaking Peace. (less)
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Sam Buckman
Dec 06, 2020Sam Buckman rated it it was ok
Shelves: put-down
I found this book somewhat interesting while I was reading it, but I had no desire to pick it up when I wasn't. I didn't finish it.
I recall that it had a taxonomy for societies I thought seemed useful which defined three forms of power - state power, based on rule making and enforcement; economic power, based on control of resources; and social power, based on the ability to mobilise voluntary action. The author used this taxonomy to clarify the distinction between various ways a society could ...more
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Oz Amram
Nov 24, 2021Oz Amram rated it really liked it
Quite clearly written and easy to follow. Takes a very pragmatic and 'experimental' approach political change beyond capitalism. Some parts are a bit dry, as the book is trying to lay the foundation for a new tradition in socialism defines lots of things and has somewhat unnecessary diagrams. But other times the clarity is very much appreciated. I resonated strongly with a lot of its ideas about trying new social configurations, pessimism of ruptural change, and a broad vision for what social em ...more
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dimwig
Feb 15, 2019dimwig rated it it was amazing
Shelves: econ, politics, favourites
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Kaylan
Jul 03, 2021Kaylan rated it it was amazing
Well written with intriguing use of current issues.
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S.Stein
Aug 06, 2017S.Stein rated it did not like it
This might be the most boring and unimaginative book I've read about Utopia so far. Underpinned by weak argumentation it makes a claim for social democracy. (less)
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Marcel Schwarz
Jan 26, 2022Marcel Schwarz rated it liked it
Not a bad book, it summarizes a lot of ideas. It's just pretty long for what it transmits, there wasn't so many new ideas but to get through it takes time. ...more
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Tom
Apr 17, 2015Tom rated it liked it
Interesting in some ways but ultimately quite frustrating and deficient. The most worthwhile part of the book is his discussion of strategies for transformation. He discusses three:
1. "Ruptural" strategies. This means a period of a fundamental break with the capitalist order & construction of a socialist system. Unfortunately Wright discusses only the state socialist concept of a radical socialist party winning an election & trying to transform society. He then argues this is implausible because radical measures such as expropriation would lose middle class support & they'd lose elections.
A fundamental defect of this book is that he never once mentions syndicalism. He has no conception whatever of the idea of workers on a mass scale seizing control of the means of production and creating a coordinated and federated worker managed economy. Even tho a process of this sort took place in Spain historically in the '30s.
Under the syndicalist version of the "ruptural" strategy many of the problems he mentions would be dealt with through the direct power of workers over the various industries, to ensure continued production of goods and services.
2. The second strategy he discusses he calls "interstitital". His term for a Prhoudhonist strategy of changing society through building cooperatives & other alternative institutions. He mistakenly refers to this as "the anarchist strategy." He's apparently unaware that the main anarchist strategy historically was syndicalism. He cherry picks a quote or two but never mentions organizations or real movements. So here you have a Marxist professor who pontificates on what the strategies are without actually doing the research. This is why I give this book low marks.
3. the third strategy he calls "symbiotic". his term for social democratic parties that enact measures that benefit the capitalist regime. why this is supposed to be a strategy for transformation or emancipation is hard to say, given the deplorable pattern of degeneration of social democratic parties over time.
Wright abandons the Marxist concept of the state as functional for capitalism, as a repressive body that exists to defend the interests of the dominant class, in favor of a more liberal view of the state as a "complex" set of institutions some of which are "neutral" between classes. So it is no surprise he has no interest in replacing the state, which he doesn't seem to think is possible. (less)
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Anne
May 03, 2015Anne rated it liked it
Shelves: school, 2015
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. (less)
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