Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)

Михаил Велижев - «Размышляя о себе, он пишет о каждом из нас» 17 июня в Болонье ушел из жизни великий историк Карло Гинзбург. Ему было 87 лет. О встречах со своим другом и учителем вспоминает Михаил Велижев, редактор и переводчик работ Гинзбурга на русском языке. https://gorky.media/context/razmyshlyaya-o-sebe-on-pishet-o-kazhdom-iz-nas

Anton Jäger - Hyperpolitics What happens when politics is everywhere, yet nothing seems to change? From the abandoned dance floors of Thatcher’s London to the mass mobilizations of Black Lives Matter, Anton Jäger traces how pub­lic life has become infused with protest, spectacle, and moral urgency while the old infrastructure of parties, unions, and civic solidarity has been hollowed out. Hyperpolitics revisits the illusions of the “end of history” and dissects the strange energies that replaced them: viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight. Jäger shows how the promises of post–Cold War liberalism gave way to a restless, unsteady public sphere where private pas­sions overflow into politics but rarely build enduring power. Ranging from Guy Debord and Wolfgang Tillmans to Houellebecq’s disenchanted fictions, Hyperpolitics makes sense of a world in which collective action remains fragmented and the social fabric thinner than ever. For anyone trying to grasp why our age feels so charged yet so incon­sequential, this book offers a vital map through the new contradictions of our hyperpolitical moment.

Hélène Landemore - Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule Politicians have failed us. But democracy doesn’t have to. Bought by special interests, detached from real life, obsessed with reelection. Politicians make big promises, deliver little to nothing, and keep the game rigged in their favor. But what can we do? In Politics Without Politicians, acclaimed political theorist Hélène Landemore asks and answers a radical question: What if we didn’t need politicians at all? What if everyday people under the right conditions could govern much better? With disarming clarity and a deep sense of urgency, Landemore argues that electoral politics is broken but democracy isn’t. We’ve just been doing it wrong. Drawing on ancient Athenian practices and contemporary citizens’ assemblies, Landemore champions an alternative approach that is alive, working, and growing around the world: civic lotteries that select everyday people to govern not as career politicians but as temporary stewards of the common good. When regular citizens come together in this way, they make smarter, fairer, more forward-thinking decisions, often bringing out the best in one another. Witnessing this process firsthand, Landemore has learned that democracy should be like a good party where even the shyest guests feel welcome to speak, listen, and be heard. With sharp analysis and real-world examples, drawing from her experience with deliberative processes in France and elsewhere, Landemore shows us how to move beyond democracy as a spectator sport, embracing it as a shared practice not just in the voting booth but in shaping the laws and policies that govern our lives. This is not a book about what’s wrong it’s a manifesto for what’s possible. If you’ve ever felt powerless, Politics Without Politicians will show you how “We the People” take back democracy.

Henry Snow - Control Science: How Management Made the Modern World What are the rules that govern our workday? Who made them? And how do these rules dominate the rest of our lives? Whether on Caribbean plantations in the seven­teenth century or in Amazon warehouses today, the powerful have constantly developed new techniques to control workers and new justifications for doing so. Ideas of control perfected on the factory floor have expanded to dictate our personal lives, polit­ical rights, national policy, and the global economy. Seventeenth-century intellectuals such as William Petty and John Locke argued that human beings were selfish machines who had to be controlled for their own good. A century later, Jeremy and Samuel Bentham tried to do exactly that with their infamous Panopticon prison. When nineteenth-century Japa­nese elites imported European factory technologies, they came up with new theories of political control to justify this development. After the Second World War, the General Electric Corporation created an in­ternal propaganda department to fight unions, then pitched that propaganda to the country with the help of an actor, the future President Ronald Reagan. Ex­tending these practices, billionaires today dream of extending the algorithmic control of Amazon ware­houses into every corner of our lives. Blending intellectual, economic, and labor history, Control Science is a thrilling and lucid work of his­tory. Henry Snow reveals how common sense about work, the economy, and human nature was fabricated and must now be challenged.

Richard Seymour - Disaster Nationalism: The Downfall of Liberal Civilization The rise of the new far right has left the world grappling with a profound misunderstanding. While the spotlight often shines on the actions of charismatic leaders such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, the true peril lies elsewhere. Defeating these people will not stem the tide driving them forward. They are merely the embodiment of profound forces that are rarely understood. Propelled through the vast networks of social media and fueled by far-right influencers, enthralled by images of disaster and fantasies of doom, they have emerged from a reservoir of societal despair, fear, and isolation. Within this seething cauldron, we witness not only the surge of far-right political movements but also the sparks of individual and collective violence against perceived enemies, from 'lone wolf’ killers to terrifying pogroms. Should a new fascism emerge, it will coalesce from these very elements. This is disaster nationalism. Richard Seymour delves deep into this alarming development in world politics, dissecting its roots, its influencers, and the threats it poses. With meticulous analysis and compelling storytelling, Seymour offers a stark warning. The battle against disaster nationalism is not just political; it is a struggle for our collective soul and the future of civilization itself. Unless we understand the deeper forces propelling the far-right resurgence, we have little chance of stopping it.

Gina Anne Tam - Dancing in Shackles Two new books about internet control in China and North Korea address the potent question of what it means to be free online. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/wall-dancers-china-liu-millennial-north-korea-kim/

В поисках средств к существованию Карл Поланьи В центре книги — фундаментальный тезис: экономика не является автономной сферой, подчиненной универсальным законам рынка, а всегда укоренена в социальных, политических и культурных отношениях. Прослеживая историю хозяйственных институтов от древней Месопотамии и архаической Греции до капитализма XIX века, Поланьи показывает, что саморегулирующийся рынок — не вечная данность, а исторически обусловленный и внутренне неустойчивый эксперимент. На протяжении большей части человеческой истории распределение ресурсов осуществлялось иными способами — через реципрокность и редистрибуцию, а не через ценовой механизм. Книга бросает вызов базовым допущениям неоклассической экономики и предлагает принципиально иной язык для описания хозяйственной жизни — язык, востребованность которого лишь возрастает перед лицом кризисов современного глобального рынка.

Феликс Гваттари - Горделивый Токио В эссе «Горделивый Токио» Гваттари приводит конкретные негативные примеры «капиталистического инфантилизма» в массовой культуре. В японской культуре силен «машинный эрос», глубоко повторяющийся и производящий субъективность, вкладывающую силы в «кайф от машин». Проблема для Гваттари заключается в том, соединяется ли этот «машинный гул» с продуктивным социальным выходом, таким как бизнес, направляя его в новое русло, или же он прозябает в глупой зависимости от видеоигр или даже схлопывается в самоубийство. Все три варианта очевидны в Японии. Для Гваттари «Япония — это прототип новой капиталистической субъективности», которая произвела в рамках высокотехнологичного чуда неоднозначные результаты, дико мечущиеся от необычайной креативности до гипер-отчуждения. https://syg.ma/@mikhail-fedorchenko/gordelivyy-tokio-feliks-gvattari

Enzo Traverso - The Century of Eric Hobsbawm Hobsbawm is frequently depicted as the greatest historian of the twentieth century, a superlative that is not abused if it means that he was the most important scholar to have written on the history of the past century. At the conclusion of his book, unafraid of hyperbole, Chabal speaks of “two Hobsbawms”: the man and the myth. The myth appeared in the mid-1990s, when Hobsbawm published The Age of Extremes, the book that canonized him as a celebrity on a global scale, far beyond the boundaries of academia. Anyone who read this work at the time was deeply struck by such a tour de force: Under his pen, the twentieth century suddenly achieved a clear profile, as an age of cataclysms framed by the Great War and the end of communism (1914–91), broken in the middle by an eruption of apocalyptic violence during World War II. A past still perceived as part of the present became history; a vast constellation of scattered events found its place in the puzzle and could now be viewed from a historical perspective. https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/the-century-of-eric-hobsbawm/

Маршалл Салинз - Экономика каменного века «Экономика каменного века» Маршалла Салинза — одна из важнейших книг по современной антропологии, которая сразу после первой публикации в 1972 году принесла ее автору репутацию мэтра. Предприняв амбициозную интерпретацию природы экономической деятельности как культурного феномена, Салинз радикально пересмотрел традиционные представления не только об охотниках и собирателях, но и о первобытном обществе и так называемом натуральном хозяйстве в целом. Именно здесь Салинз обнаружил «первоначальное общество изобилия» — концепцию, которая стала его визитной карточкой в антропологии и на десятилетия вперед определила горизонт дискуссий, давно преодолевших академические рамки. Но, как и полвека назад, гипотеза о том, что первобытные люди, возможно, жили лучше без благ современной цивилизации, сохраняет свою провокативность и заставляет искать ее новые подтверждения или опровержения.