Sociology, Capitalism, Critique

Dörre Klaus, Stephan Lessenich, Rosa Hartmut, Loren Balhorn, Jan-Peter Herrmann

Description

Three radical perspectives on the critique of capitalism
For years, the critique of capitalism was lost from public discourse; the very word "capitalism" sounded like a throwback to another era. Nothing could be further from the truth today. In this new intellectual atmosphere, Sociology, Capitalism, Critique is a contribution to the renewal of critical sociology, founded on an empirically grounded diagnosis of society's ills. The authors, Germany's leading critical sociologists-Klaus D�rre, Stephan Lessenich, and Hartmut Rosa-share a conviction that ours is a pivotal period of renewal, in which the collective endeavour of academics can amount to an act of intellectual resistance, working to prevent any regressive development that might return us to neoliberal domination.

The authors discuss key issues, such as questions of accumulation and expropriation; discipline and freedom; and the powerful new concepts of activation and acceleration. Their politically committed sociology, which takes the side of the losers in the current crisis, places society's future well-being at the centre of their research.

Their collective approach to this project is a conscious effort to avoid co-optation in the institutional practices of the academy. These three differing but complementary perspectives serve as an insightful introduction to the contemporary themes of radical sociology in capitalism's post-crisis phase.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Political Ideologies
• Political Economy
• Political
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Sociology
• Communism
• Politics
• Communisme

Informations

• Publié par: Verso
• Date de parution: 08 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781781689349
• Langue: English

Extrait

SOCIOLOGY, CAPITALISM, CRITIQUE
SOCIOLOGY, CAPITALISM, CRITIQUE
KLAUS DÖRRE, STEPHAN LESSENICH, HARTMUT ROSA
TRANSLATED BY JAN-PETER HERRMANN AND LOREN BALHORN
First published in the English language by Verso 2015
Translation © Jan-Peter Herrmann and Loren Balhorn
First published as Soziologie – Kapitalismus – Kritik: Eine Debatte
© Suhrkamp 2009
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG
US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.versobooks.com
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-932-5 (PB)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-931-8 (HC)
eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-933-2 (US)
eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-934-9 (UK)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dörre, Klaus.
[Soziologie – Kapitalismus – Kritik. English]
Sociology – capitalism – critique / Klaus Dörre, Stephan Lessenich, Hartmut Rosa ; translated by Jan-Peter Herrmann and Loren Balhorn.
    pages cm
“First published as Soziologie – Kapitalismus – Kritik: Eine Debatte [by] Suhrkamp, 2015.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-78168-932-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-78168-931-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-78168-933-2 (ebook : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-78168-934-9 (ebook : alk. paper)
1. Capitalism–Social aspects. 2. Sociology. I. Lessenich, Stephan. II. Rosa, Hartmut, 1965– III. Title.
HB501.D662713 2015
306.3–dc23
2015005785
Typeset in Minion Pro by MJ & N Gavan, Truro, Cornwall
Printed in the US by Maple Press
Contents
Foreword to the English Edition
Introduction Sociology – Capitalism – Critique: Towards the Revitalisation of an Elective Affinity
SECTION I – POSITIONS
1 The New Landnahme : Dynamics and Limits of Financial Market Capitalism
Klaus Dörre
2 Capitalism as a Spiral of Dynamisation: Sociology as Social Critique
Hartmut Rosa
3 Mobility and Control: On the Dialectic of the ‘Active Society’
Stephan Lessenich
SECTION II – CRITICISMS
4 Capitalism, Acceleration, Activation: A Criticism
Klaus Dörre
5 Temporary Workers and Active Citizens: What Is Wrong with Late Modern Capitalism?
Hartmut Rosa
6 Artistic or Social Critique? On the Problematisation of a False Alternative
Stephan Lessenich
SECTION III – RIPOSTES
7 Landnahme , Social Conflict, Alternatives: (More than) a Riposte
Klaus Dörre
8 Antagonists and Critical Integrationists, or, What Do We Do with the Spoiled Pie?
Hartmut Rosa
9 The System in/on the Subject, or, When Three People Quarrel, (Critical) Sociology Rejoices
Stephan Lessenich
Conclusion
Landnahme – Acceleration – Activation: A Preliminary Appraisal in the Process of Social Transformation
AFTERWORD
Social Capitalism and Crisis: From the Internal to the External Landnahme
Klaus Dörre
Escalation: The Crisis of Dynamic Stabilisation and the Prospect of Resonance
Hartmut Rosa
Structural Problems of Growth Capitalism
Stephan Lessenich
Index
Foreword to the English Edition
As Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum in Davos, claimed in 2012, ‘Capitalism in its current form does not fit our world.’ 1 Pope Francis put it more radically, stating that ‘this economic model kills’. 2 More generally, it seems that a certain uneasiness regarding capitalism as such has even reached the social elites. This appears to pose a fitting occasion for a critical sociology. Yet when this book was published in its original German edition in 2009, causing great debate among German sociologists, a sound, scholarly critique of capitalism was in fact lacking. Indeed, sociology was ill prepared for the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009. Analysis and critique of capitalism had remained confined to the shadows, at least in the German-speaking world. If capitalism was mentioned at all, it was spelled out in the plural while its divergent institutional varieties were dissected. The systemic ‘commons’ of this social formation was largely ignored analytically.
Our book aims to re-ignite the debate. Yet it is also directed at non-sociologists interested in the anatomy of capitalist societies, their crises and the chances of a post-capitalist transformation. The authors proceed from one common point of departure: modern capitalisms constitute dynamic growth societies. Their relative stability throughout numerous crisis periods rested on economic-technological efficiency and growing material prosperity. A break in this continuity, however, is now occurring in the guise of an economic-ecological double crisis. There is a growing discrepancy between economic growth and general levels of prosperity. Economic growth itself has become a driving force of crisis. For sociology, this raises a question about the mutual interrelations between dynamic self-stabilisation and the principles of legitimation of modern capitalist societies. Our hypothesis reads that the logic of increase and escalation, consisting of an endless chain of Landnahmen , accelerations, and activations, may have in fact passed a critical threshold at which capitalist modernity’s dynamisation imperatives themselves are being questioned. This fundamental assumption represents the common theme of the following sociological debate. The book starts off with three introductory chapters presenting the key concepts in our respective analyses of capitalist dynamics: Landnahme , acceleration, and activation. These are followed by criticisms and ripostes by each of the three authors, respectively.
Five years after the first publication of the German edition of this book, European capitalisms have not left the socio-economic crisis behind, not even remotely. Due to unemployment and economic stagnation, ecological threats such as climate change are either being ignored or fatalistically accepted. Moreover, the crisis in Ukraine has re-ignited the cold war between East and West, while the Arab Spring has not only deposed despots, but also created a power vacuum that is being filled, at least partially, by Islamic fundamentalists. However, despite all the crises and convulsions, the capitalist elites seem to be running a tight ship, at least in the historical centres. The year of 2011 saw social movements emerging in opposition to market fundamentalism. Yet with the exception of those Latin American countries with centre-left governments, democratic anti-capitalist political forces are weaker than ever. In fact, currently, it seems more likely that far-right and right-wing populist formations could be successful in instrumentalising widespread dissatisfaction to pave the way towards a new authoritarianism.
While the world stumbles from one crisis to the next, the social sciences largely confine themselves to business as usual. Once again, economists have outpaced sociologists. While Thomas Piketty’s hypothesis of permanently growing wealth inequality due to capitalism is being debated all over the world, the German Wirtschaftsweise (economic wise men) remain convinced that the heterodox economist has ‘shot himself in the foot’. 3 This clinging to old dogmas, immune to new insights or developments, shows that our debate about contemporary capitalism is as relevant as ever. Today, whoever seeks to analyse and criticise capitalism as a social formation still faces – in economics as well as in sociology – a significant challenge. This book is our contribution to this effort. In order to address more recent developments, we have complemented the English edition with three additional chapters at the end of the book. The analytical approaches here take their empirical reference points mainly from European capitalism. Given that we are particularly interested in the global commonalities of capitalist socialisation ( Vergesellschaftung ), however, we hope that our discussion proves stimulating for readers from the Anglo-Saxon world and beyond, too.
Klaus Dörre, Stephan Lessenich, Hartmut Rosa, December 2014
___________
1 Klaus Schwab on 24 January 2012, as reported by German news channel n-tv.
2 ‘Franziskus und die Globalisierung, Was der Papst verschweigt’, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , 29 November 2013.
3 ‘Verschärft der Kapitalismus die Ungleichheit oder nicht?’, in ZEIT-online , 5 June 2014, http://blog.zeit.de/herdentrieb/2014/06/05/verschaerft-der-kapitalismus-die-ungleichheit-oder-nicht . Accessed: 01 December 2014. This statement comes from the neo-Keynesian Bofinger, of all people.
Introduction: Sociology – Capitalism – Critique: Towards the Revitalisation of an Elective Affinity
We Are All Socialists Now.
– Newsweek , 16 February 2009
Wherever you look these days, the critique of capitalism has all of a sudden become quite fashionable. You could get the impression that critiques of the ‘system’, which for a long time had been confined to marginal or fringe groups (among for instance social milieus such as students, unionists, and veteran libertarians), and lately seemed to have found their (anti-)institutional home within the alt-globalisation movement, have now made their way into the social mainstream. Whether in the review section of major newspapers or in the catalogues of prestigious publishing houses, from Heiner Geißler’s invectives against globalisation to Josef Ackermann’s self-incriminating public statements, in this country, anyone keen to go with the times is distancing themselves from capitalism. Even if this condemnation is moralistic, everyone feels obligated to disassociate themselves from the dysfunction and crises of capitalism’s latest neo-liberal phase of development. The reader of this book may rightly ask herself at the beginning of this intellectual endeavour: why another tirade against capitalism? Why another book on what is by now a very obvious crisis? Do we really, now that everyone is having a go a