Vampire Capitalism: Fractured Societies and Alternative Futures

by Paul Kennedy

Overview

This book argues that in recent decades an unrestrained vampire-capitalism has emerged, disengaged from the needs of citizens and workers, leading to a deepening of social class, generational, gender, educational and ethnic divisions. The author explores how our cultural obsession with self-realization undermines our capacity for collective action and ability to confront threats such as climate change and the impact of the rapid advance of technology on labour. Drawing on sociology and political economy as well as worldwide case studies, the chapters interrogate how we arrived at these dilemmas and how we might escape them through establishing alternative social economies.

Vampire Capitalism will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, social theory, globalisation studies, development studies, political economy, geography, politics and social policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349716074
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	02/02/2019
Edition description:	1st ed. 2017
Pages:	355
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Paul Kennedy is Visiting Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He has taught and written widely on African and Third World studies, comparative modernization, green businesses, globalization and cosmopolitan professionals. He is the co-author of Global Sociology (Palgrave Macmillan) and took a leading role in founding the Global Studies Association.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Capitalist-modernity in question.- 2. The Rise of Vampire Capitalism (and not a slayer in sight).- 3.The Roots of Vampire Capitalism.- 4. Living with twenty-first century capitalism.- 5. The Juggernaut of science and technology: friend or foe?.- 6. Individualization and the cultures of capitalism.- 7. Global capitalism and the biosphere: Our future in jeopardy.- 8. Does Capitalism have a future.- 9. Alternatives: Exploring Possibilities.

Editorial Reviews

This is simply the clearest and most comprehensive guide to our socio-economic woes I have read in the past 50 years!” (Ronald G. Young, Amazon.co.uk, September, 2017)

From the Publisher