Critical Theory and the Critique of Alternative Societies : Co-Operatives, Mutual Aid and Universal Basic Income.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, Neal.

Series:

Critical Theory and Contemporary Society Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social change.

Critical theory.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (183 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2026.

Summary:

This book turns to the ideas of the early Frankfurt School to critically engage with key developments within anti-capitalist activism.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright information

Dedication

Contents

Preface and acknowledgements

Introduction

Why the Frankfurt School?

On alternative societies

Alternative models and their transformational strategies

The displacement and recovery of critique

The argument

Scope and aims

The structure of the book

Notes

Chapter 1: The rise of alternative societies:incoherent pluralism and actionism

Alternative societies: from obscurity to centrality

Alternative societies in anti-capitalist theorising: experimental pluralisms

An expansive pluralism

Luke Martell's Alternative Societies: For a Pluralist Socialism

A restrictive pluralism: John Holloway

John Holloway's Crack Capitalism

Plurality risks contradiction and incoherence

Less haste, more speed? A lack of space for critique

Conclusion

Chapter 2: Frankfurt School Critical Theory:lessons from a missing revolution

Beyond both justice and economism: the Frankfurt School as a corrective

Social pathology and social totality: beyond justice

Key concepts: instrumental rationality, reification, and repressive desublimation

Reification

Instrumental rationality

Repressive desublimation

The Frankfurt School and social transformation

Prefigurative and interstitial transformation

Symbiotic transformation

But why the first generation of critical theory?

Intersubjectivity and neo-idealism

Capitalist apologism

Blind to 'race' and invested in teleology?

Showcasing the Frankfurt School

Chapter 3: Workers' co-operative firms and interstitial revolution

What actually are co-operatives?

Co-operatives and interstitial transformation

Debates within co-operative studies: 'degeneration' and 'spillover'

The degeneration thesis

The spillover thesis.

The Frankfurt School and workers' co-operative firms

Co-operatives and reification

Co-operatives and repressive desublimation

Chapter 4: Mutual aid groups and prefigurative revolution

Towards an ideal type

Anarchist at core: direct democracy and antipathy to the state

Meeting immediate needs: praxis and distribution

Not charities

A transformative impulse

Mutual aid: interstitial organisations with a prefigurative inflection

Mutual aid groups: prefigurative in inflection

Mutual aid groups: interstitial in strategy

Critical theory and mutual aid

The capitalist totality: repressive desublimation

Chapter 5: Universal Basic Income: symbioticrevolution and accelerationism

What is a UBI?

A 'capitalist road to communism'? UBI and anti-capitalist strategy

A long and winding history: left, but also anti-racist, feminist, neoliberal, conservative, and 'forward'

Left-critiques of UBI

Critical theory and UBI

As aspiration: quashing neoliberal anxiety and the seduction of consumption

If implemented: UBI generating a 'totally administered society'

Chapter 6: The case for critique: corrective,transformative, therapeutic

What is critique?

Corrective

Transformative

Therapeutic

Limitations and consideration for future scholarship

The Frankfurt School revivified

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

1-5261-7223-2

1-5261-7224-0

9781526172235

OCLC:

1584463253