As stock markets plunge and governments scramble to bail out the finance sector, Robert Wade argues that we are exiting the neoliberal paradigm that has held sway since the 1980s. Causes and repercussions of the crisis, and errors of the model that brought it to fruition.
articles
Examining the link between urbanization and capitalism, David Harvey suggests we view Haussmann’s reshaping of Paris and today’s explosive growth of cities as responses to systemic crises of accumulation—and issues a call to democratize the power to shape the urban experience.
A screenplay from 1935, previously unpublished in English, by arguably the greatest Soviet writer. Amid far-reaching social transformation, notions of love, family and desire are also recast—with serious consequences for the simultaneously innocent and world-weary protagonists.
The turbulent beginning of the Fernández presidency marks the end of Kirchnerism in Argentina. Maristella Svampa surveys its record, noting ruptures and continuities—both rhetorical and substantial—with its predecessors in economic policy, social indicators and modes of rule.
Peter Hallward assesses Logiques des mondes, the latest major work by Alain Badiou, within the context of his wider concerns with truth and subjective being. Set theory and ontology brought to bear on abstract questions of appearance, relation, fidelity and historical change.
interview
A philosophe engagé discusses the ‘wrong turn’ taken by so many erstwhile French Maoists, locating its sources within the landscape of 1970s militancy. The perils of politics as ambition, as fashion, as absolute—paving a mediatized path from 68 to Sarkozy.
reviews
Vijay Prashad on Patrick Cockburn, Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq. Perceptive portrait of the Occupation’s single most elusive foe, and of the traditions of Shia militancy from which he descends.
Tom Hazeldine on Ronald Findlay and Kevin O’Rourke, Power and Plenty. Selective account of a millennium of global trade, with force as market-maker from the Pax Mongolica to the Cold War.
Alexander Cockburn on Rick Perlstein, Nixonland. Whatever happened to the Great Society? A Democratic breviary on the late 60s as supposed crucible of today’s partisan dissensus.
