Erik Olin Wright's Books

Class, Crisis and the State

By: Erik Olin Wright

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One of the major works of the new American Marxism, Wright’s book draws a challenging new class map of the United States and other, comparable, advanced capitalist countries today. It also discusses the various classical theories of economic crisis in the West and their relevance to the current recession, and contrasts the way in which the major political problem of bureaucracy was confronted by two great antagonists—Weber and Lenin. A concluding essay brings together the practical lessons of these theoretical analyses, in an examination of the problems of left governments coming to power in capitalist states.

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266

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Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1784787876

ISBN 13

9781784787875

The Debate on Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

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The Debate on Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

Erik Olin Wright's Classes was hailed on publication, by the American Journal of Sociology, as 'almost certain to be the most important book on social classes' of the decade. The Debate on Classes brings together major critics of Wright's work to assess the adequacy of his theory. Also included are Wright's own spirited responses and reformulations in the light of these criticisms, thereby presenting the reader with an open, scholarly discussion in which intellectual collaboration develops an understanding of the impact of class on the wider terrain of culture and politics.".

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370

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Verso

Published Date

ISBN 10

1859842801

ISBN 13

9781859842805

Envisioning Real Utopias

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Envisioning Real Utopias

By: Erik Olin Wright

Rising inequality of income and power, along with recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet few are attempting this task-most analysts argue that any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations is utopian. Erik Olin Wright's major new work is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. A systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors, Envisioning Real Utopias lays 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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536

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Verso Books

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ISBN 10

1789601452

ISBN 13

9781789601459

Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

Class analysis and class struggle are central concepts in Marx’s social theory yet, notoriously, Marx never wrote a systematic exposition of these terms during his lifetime, and succeeding generations have had to piece together interpretations from his many scattered references and discussions. The problem of trying to develop a Marxist class analysis on this basis has been made all the more acute by changes in the class structure of advanced capitalism, for these have thrown up a bewildering range of new social strata which seem to be difficult to reconcile with the many traditional understandings of class. In Classes, Erik Olin Wright, one of the foremost Marxist sociologists and class theorists, rises to the twofold challenge of both clarifying the abstract, structural account of class implicit in Marx, and of applying and refining the account in the light of contemporary developments in advanced capitalist societies. Recentering the concept of class on the process of exploitation, Wright discusses his famous notion of “contradictory class locations” in relation to the empirical complexities of the middle class, and he provides an analysis of class structure in “post-capitalist” societies. Wright then goes on to draw out the implications of his approach and to submit it to detailed empirical testing with the use of a trans-national survey of class structure and consciousness.

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311

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Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1804291048

ISBN 13

9781804291047

Understanding Class

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Understanding Class

By: Erik Olin Wright

Leading sociologist examines how different readings of class enrich our understanding of capitalism Few ideas are more contested today than “class.” Some have declared its death, while others insist on its centrality to contemporary capitalism. It is said its relevance is limited to explaining individuals’ economic conditions and opportunities, while at the same time argued that it is a structural feature of macro-power relations. In Understanding Class, leading left sociologist Erik Olin Wright interrogates the divergent meanings of this fundamental concept in order to develop a more integrated framework of class analysis. Beginning with the treatment of class in Marx and Weber, proceeding through the writings of Charles Tilly, Thomas Piketty, Guy Standing, and others, and finally examining how class struggle and class compromise play out in contemporary society, Understanding Class provides a compelling view of how to think about the complexity of class in the world today.

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273

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Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1781689210

ISBN 13

9781781689219

How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century

By: Erik Olin Wright

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How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century

By: Erik Olin Wright

What is wrong with capitalism, and how can we change it? Capitalism has transformed the world and increased our productivity, but at the cost of enormous human suffering. Our shared values—equality and fairness, democracy and freedom, community and solidarity—can provide both the basis for a critique of capitalism and help to guide us toward a socialist and democratic society. Erik Olin Wright has distilled decades of work into this concise and tightly argued manifesto: analyzing the varieties of anticapitalism, assessing different strategic approaches, and laying the foundations for a society dedicated to human flourishing. How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century is an urgent and powerful argument for socialism, and an unparalleled guide to help us get there. Another world is possible. Included is an afterword by the author’s close friend and collaborator Michael Burawoy.

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177

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Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1788739558

ISBN 13

9781788739559

Class Counts

Comparative Studies in Class Analysis

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Class Counts

Comparative Studies in Class Analysis

By: Erik Olin Wright

Class Counts combines theoretical discussions of the concept of class with a wide range of comparative empirical investigations of class.

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620

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521556465

ISBN 13

9780521556460

Stardust to Stardust: Reflections on Living and Dying

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Stardust to Stardust: Reflections on Living and Dying

By: Erik Olin Wright

Erik Olin Wright, one of the most important sociologists of his time, takes readers along on his intimate and brave journey toward death, and asks the big questions about human mortality. From the renowned Marxist sociologist and educator Erik Olin Wright, Stardust to Stardust is a curated collection of writings from the months of his treatment and hospitalization for acute myeloid leukemia. This combination of personal narrative with Wright’s analytical perspective results in a deeply complex, philosophical meditation on death and the meaning of existence.

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279

Publisher

Haymarket Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1642592056

ISBN 13

9781642592054

Class Counts Student Edition

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Class Counts Student Edition

By: Erik Olin Wright

This textbook provides students with a lively and penetrating exploration of the concept of class and its relevance for understanding a wide range of issues in contemporary society. Erik Olin Wright treats class as a common explanatory factor and examines three broad themes: class structure, class and gender, and class consciousness. Specific empirical studies include such diverse topics as class variations in the gender division of labour in housework; friendship networks across class boundaries; the American class structure since 1960; and cross-national variations in class consciousness. The author evaluates these studies in the light of expectations within the Marxist tradition of class analysis. This Student Edition of Class Counts thus combines Wright s sophisticated account of central and enduring questions in social theory with practical analyses of detailed social problems.

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314

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521663946

ISBN 13

9780521663946

Reconstructing Marxism

Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History

By: Erik Olin Wright,Andrew Levine,Elliott Sober

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Reconstructing Marxism

Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History

By: Erik Olin Wright,Andrew Levine,Elliott Sober

Reconstructing Marxism explores fundamental questions about the structure of Marxist theory and its prospects for the future. The authors maintain that the disintegration of the old theoretical unity of classical Marxism is in part responsible for what is commonly called the "crisis of Marxism." Only a reconstructed Marxism can come to terms with this disintegration. Addressing a range of problems in historical materialism and class analysis, the authors compare historical materialism with Darwinian evolutionary theory, and identify what is distinctively "historical" in Marx's theory of history. Through an evaluation of G.A. Cohen's defense and Anthony Giddens's critique of historical materialism they suggest what a plausible, yet still Marxist. theory of history might be. They analyze the relationship of microanalysis to macro theory and the assignment of causal primacy in explanations, and present a general assessment of the current state of Marxist theory and the prospects for its analytical reconstruction. Distinguished by the clarity of its presentation, the analytical rigour of its argument and its concern with fundamental philosophical and sociological issues, Reconstructing Marxism advances, at this critical juncture in the history of Marxism, a challenging new research programme.

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226

Publisher

Verso

Published Date

ISBN 10

0860913422

ISBN 13

9780860913429

Alternatives to Capitalism

Proposals for a Democratic Economy

By: Robin Hahnel,Erik Olin Wright

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Alternatives to Capitalism

Proposals for a Democratic Economy

By: Robin Hahnel,Erik Olin Wright

What would a viable free and democratic society look like? Poverty, exploitation, instability, hierarchy, subordination, environmental exhaustion, radical inequalities of wealth and power—it is not difficult to list capitalism’s myriad injustices. But is there a preferable and workable alternative? Alternatives to Capitalism: Proposals for a Democratic Economy presents a debate between two such possibilities: Robin Hahnel’s “participatory economics” and Erik Olin Wright’s “real utopian” socialism. It is a detailed and rewarding discussion that illuminates a range of issues and dilemmas of crucial importance to any serious effort to build a better world.

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189

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Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1784785067

ISBN 13

9781784785062

Legislature by Lot

Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance

By: Erik Olin Wright,John Gastil

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Legislature by Lot

Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance

By: Erik Olin Wright,John Gastil

Democracy means rule by the people, but in practice even the most robust democracies delegate most rule making to a political class. The gap between the public and its public officials might seem unbridgeable in the modern world, but Legislature by Lot presents a close examination of an inspiring solution: a legislature chosen through "sortition"-the random selection of lay citizens. It's a concept that has come to the attention of democratic reformers across the globe. Proposals for such bodies are being debated in Australia, Belgium, Iceland, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Sortition promises to reduce corruption and create a truly representative legislature in one fell swoop. In Legislature by Lot, John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright make the case for pairing a sortition body with an elected chamber within a bicameral legislature. Gastil is a leading deliberative democracy scholar, and Wright a distinguished sociologist and series editor of the Real Utopias books, of which this is a part. In this volume, they bring together critics and advocates of sortition who studied ancient Athens, deliberative polling, political theory, social movements, and civic innovation. The constellation of voices in this book lays out a wide variety of ideas for how to implement sortition, without obscuring its limitations, and examine its potential for reshaping modern politics. Legislature by Lot includes sixteen essays that respond to Gastil and Wright's detailed proposal. Essays comparing it to contemporary reforms see it as a dramatic extension of deliberative "minipublics," which gather random samples of citizens to weight public policy dilemmas without being empowered to enact legislation. Another set of essays explores the democratic principles underlying sortition and elections and considers, for example, how a sortition body holds itself accountable to a public that did not elect it. The third set of essays consider alternative paths to democratic reform, which limit the powers of a sortition chamber or more quickly establish a pure sortition body.

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495

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Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1788736095

ISBN 13

9781788736091

Deepening Democracy

Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

By: Archon Fung,Erik Olin Wright

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Deepening Democracy

Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

By: Archon Fung,Erik Olin Wright

The forms of liberal democracy developed in the 19th century seem increasingly ill-suited to the problems we face in the 21st. This dilemma has given rise to a deliberative democracy, and this text explores four contemporary cases in which the principles have been at least partially instituted.

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328

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Verso

Published Date

ISBN 10

1859846882

ISBN 13

9781859846889

The Debate on Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

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The Debate on Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

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370

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Verso

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ISBN 10

1859842801

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9781859842805

Deepening Democracy

Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

By: Archon Fung,Erik Olin Wright

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Deepening Democracy

Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

By: Archon Fung,Erik Olin Wright

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328

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Verso

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1859846882

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9781859846889

Legislature by Lot

Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance

By: Erik Olin Wright,John Gastil

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Legislature by Lot

Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance

By: Erik Olin Wright,John Gastil

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495

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Verso Books

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1788736095

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9781788736091

Class Counts Student Edition

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Class Counts Student Edition

By: Erik Olin Wright

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314

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Cambridge University Press

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0521663946

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9780521663946

Envisioning Real Utopias

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Envisioning Real Utopias

By: Erik Olin Wright

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536

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Verso Books

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1789601452

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9781789601459

Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Classes

By: Erik Olin Wright

Questions of class, power and distribution have reemerged as central concerns in the public discourse. When we talk about class, we don't always know what is meant. Is class about income or affect or the ownership of the means of production? Perhaps it is about authority or autonomy? But what happens when, as is often the case in complex advanced economies, people can occupy social and economic roles that seem to indicate membership in more than one class? And what does this mean for the supposed relationship between class and potential political capacity and affinity? In Classes, Erik Olin Wright, the greatest American Marxist sociologists, rises to the twofold challenge of both clarifying the abstract, structural account of class implicit in Marx, and of applying and refining the account in the light of contemporary developments in advanced capitalist societies. What Wright calls "contradictory class locations" can make the class landscape appear much more complex than the simple model presented in Marx. Despite this complexity, common interests and therefore political alliances can still be found. In a society, like the US, characterized by extreme inequality, Classes provides not just a useful descriptive account of the operation of class but also the tools to understand the interplay of class interests and political (re)alignment.

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311

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Verso Books

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180429103X

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9781804291030

Class, Crisis and the State

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Class, Crisis and the State

By: Erik Olin Wright

One of the major works of the new American Marxism, Wright's book draws a challenging new class map of the United States and other, comparable, advanced capitalist countries today. It also discusses the various classical theories of economic crisis in the West and their relevance to the current recession, and contrasts the way in which the major political problem of bureaucracy was confronted by two great antagonists - Weber and Lenin. A concluding essay brings together the practical lessons of these theoretical analyses, in an examination of the problems of left governments coming to power in capitalist states.

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198

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Verso Books

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1784787868

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9781784787868

Alternatives to Capitalism

Proposals for a Democratic Economy

By: Robin Hahnel,Erik Olin Wright

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Alternatives to Capitalism

Proposals for a Democratic Economy

By: Robin Hahnel,Erik Olin Wright

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189

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Verso Books

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1784785067

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9781784785062

Reconstructing Marxism

Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History

By: Erik Olin Wright,Andrew Levine,Elliott Sober

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Reconstructing Marxism

Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History

By: Erik Olin Wright,Andrew Levine,Elliott Sober

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226

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Verso

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ISBN 10

0860913422

ISBN 13

9780860913429

Understanding Class

By: Erik Olin Wright

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Understanding Class

By: Erik Olin Wright

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273

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Verso Books

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ISBN 10

1781689458

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9781781689455

The Begging Question

Sweden's Social Responses to the Roma Destitute

By: Erik Hansson

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The Begging Question

Sweden's Social Responses to the Roma Destitute

By: Erik Hansson

Erik Hansson examines Swedish society's reactions to the presence of European Union citizens, mainly Romanian and Bulgarian Roma, begging in the 2010s.

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