He may ramble at times but his logic is convincing and his arguments are sobering. In the book, mason discusses the existential threat posed to capitalism by the digital revolution. Paul masons book postcapitalism fetishises information technology. Jul 30, 2015 from paul mason, the awardwinning channel 4 presenter, postcapitalism is a guide to our era of seismic economic change, and how we can build a more equal society. A guide to our future has created quite a media stir over recent months. Jul 17, 2015 postcapitalism by paul mason allen lane. On page one of postcapitalism, paul mason says, in an aside, i knew, in addition to all this, that i didnt like capitalism.
What partic ularly impressed kode9 was paul mas on s claim that when production costs are reduced to zero, this has a massive. A guide to our future, by paul mason, allen lane, rrp. Jun 15, 2017 paul masons vision of a postcapitalist world is rooted in a dated ideology and short on specifics. The end of capitalism has begun books the guardian. A passionate debate, for instance, has been conducted on the pages of international socialism journal. The basic theme of the book is that capitalism in its current form, neoliberalism, has exhausted itself. Hardly directly mentioning his new book, postcapitalism, mason used his halfhour speaking at oxfords blackwells bookshop to explain the postcapitalist vision of the work. Paul mason associates each 50 year cycle of capitalism with the emergence of a new technological paradigm. A short game which depicts how we might reorganise the capitalist present into a postcapitalist utopia. Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone continual change economic cycles that lurch from boom to bust and. Its not a work of reportage, but of wideranging historical and economic analysis that is inspired by marxs analysis of capitalist social relations, but also goes some way beyond. Internet based collaboration, however, serves the interests of those who wish to sustain the capitalist system as well as those who may wish to supersede capitalism, or indeed those, such as isis, who may wish to destroy it.
The factory system, steam powered machinery and canals. A guide to our future is a 2015 book by british journalist and writer paul mason. Oct 30, 2015 paul mason, economics editor at channel 4 news, will speak on his book postcapitalism. Postcapitalism is a theory that i was exposed to through paul masons book, postcapitalism. David runciman, writing in the guardian is broadly positive, concluding that mason has provided a spark to the imagination a worthy successor to marx. At a time when, despite the occasional hiccup, market forces appear to be triumphant everywhere, up pops channel 4s economics editor, paul. At the heart of this change is information technology, a revolution that is. Mason defines neoliberalism as a highly financialised capitalism, where fiat money and creditdebt purvey most aspects of everyday life such as mortgages, payday loans etc. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read postcapitalism.
An endorsing blurb by naomi klein on the back cover has perhaps further contributed to the book s status. Paul mason, economics editor at channel 4 news, will speak on his book postcapitalism. Surveying this turbulent history, paul mason s postcapitalism argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new. As the it says on the cover, this is a very important book. Mason, now the 55yearold economics editor of channel 4, is a. Now, as greece and the rest of europe catches its breath, mason has returned to britain to promote his new book, postcapitalism. The long wait for a new political programme pays off in a book that begins as a chilling warning against complacency and ends as a call to political action.
Postcapitalism is expected to be made possible with. However, what makes this book refreshingly different is the tangible picture it paints of our possible path to a postcapitalist world. For me, it was very interesting to see how mason took marxist thoughts and ideas, and looked to see how he could balance capitalist and marxist thoughts for a better society and economy. Downloadable builds are provided here for sake of completion only. In 2015, according to paul mason the rise of income inequality, repeating cycles of boom and bust and capitalisms contributions to climate change has led economists, political thinkers and philosophers to begin to seriously consider how a postcapitalistic society would look and function. From paul mason, the awardwinning channel 4 presenter, postcapitalism is a guide to our era of seismic economic change and how we can build a more equal society. I had read an article on post capitalism by paul mason in the guardian and found it very interesting and enlightening which encouraged me to buy the book. From paul mason, the awardwinning channel 4 presenter, postcapitalism is a guide to our era of seismic economic change, and how we can build a more equal society. Paul mason is not an economist by training, and it shows. By contrast former labour mp chris mullin, also in the guardian, is more scathing, seemingly lambasting mason. Paul masons vision of a postcapitalist world is rooted in a dated ideology and short on specifics. Yet its to paul masons great credit and courage that he offers a model of how. Although it is about global economics not my strong point by any means masons writing style makes it almost read like a novel. A guide to our future has generated considerable interest among the leftist circles.
It ignores the role of digital labour and the contradiction between digital labour and digital capital in the international division of digital labour. In postcapitalism mason is a historian, an economist and a political philosopher all at once. Paul mason has 240 books on goodreads with 12576 ratings. A guide to our future as a supporter of capitalism as a system that has lifted millions, even billions, of people out of poverty, or do you come as a critic looking for faults and blame. A guide to our future adds another compelling voice to this increasingly hardtoignore din. Paul masons postcapitalism is easily the most economicallyfocused title in this collection, taking great care to explain clearly the economic justifications for progression away from neoliberal capitalism a system that, according to mason, is inescapably based on waves of boom and bust masons economic critique of capitalism forms a significant portion of the book, and while this. Surveying this turbulent history, paul masons postcapitalism argu. The argument rests on a fierce critique of neoliberalism, and the application of both neoclassical and marxist economic theory to the sphere of information transfer in. Mar 03, 2016 paul mason joined us in london to talk about his book postcapitalism. In less than 300 pages, paul mason not only explains the past 300 years of capitalism and the efforts to replace it with another system socialism, but shows how it would be eventually transformed and proposes a set of policies to help that transformation along. But this fresh and insightful book illuminates the present in unexpected. By chris mullin at a time when, despite the occasional hiccup, market forces appear to be triumphant everywhere, up pops channel 4s economics editor, paul mason, to predict that the end is nigh. What partic ularly impressed kode9 was paul mas ons claim that when production costs are reduced to zero, this has a massive.