Nick Srnicek

Alex Williams

A major new left manifesto for a technological future free from work.

Folk Politics and the Left

Inventing the Future

What unites Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, Siemens and GE, Uber and Airbnb? Across a wide range of sectors, these firms are transforming themselves into platforms: businesses that provide the hardware and software foundation for others to operate on. This transformation signals a major shift in how capitalist firms operate and how they interact with the rest of the economy: the emergence of platform capitalism. This book critically examines these new business forms, tracing their genesis from the long downturn of the 1970s to the boom and bust of the 1990s and the aftershocks of the 2008 crisis. It shows how the fundamental foundations of the economy are rapidly being carved up among a small number of monopolistic platforms, and how the platform introduces new tendencies within capitalism that pose significant challenges to any vision of a post-capitalist future. This book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the most powerful tech companies of our time are transforming the global economy."

Platform Capitalism

Helen Hester

A vital and timely proposal for a feminist post-work politics Would you let a robot clean your house? When we think about work, we still tend to think about workplaces - if we think about reducing work, we think about reducing working hours and spending more time at home. But the home has never been free from work, and with the continued gendered division of labour, women still do the bulk of domestic activities. As two-income families find themselves ever more time-poor, many look to outsource to cleaners, nannies, and care workers. More and more, it would seem, people are finding themselves without either the emotional or the financial resources to take care of themselves and each other. The home, rather than an escape from the work and its pressures, is in fact an extension of it. After Work is a crucial corrective to this trend, extending its attention beyond paid jobs, to the impact of domestic work upon familial relationships, social bonds, and our very conceptions of domestic space. What if we automated housework? In this groundbreaking work, Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek argue that there is a crisis that can and should be tackled. Only by rethinking the way we organise our living arrangements, redefining our domestic standards and remaining open to the automation of work done in the home, they argue, can we imagine a world that is truly post-work.

The Fight for Free Time

After Work

Levi Bryant

Graham Harman

Continental philosophy has entered a new period of ferment. The long deconstructionist era was followed with a period dominated by Deleuze, which has in turn evolved into a new situation still difficult to define. However, one common thread running through the new brand of continental positions is a renewed attention to materialist and realist options in philosophy. Among the leaders of the established generation, this new focus takes numerous forms. It might be hard to find many shared positions in the writings of Badiou, DeLanda, Laruelle, Latour, Stengers, and i ek, but what is missing from their positions is an obsession with the critique of written texts. All of them elaborate a positive ontology, despite the incompatibility of their results. Meanwhile, the new generation of continental thinkers is pushing these trends still further, as seen in currents ranging from transcendental materialism to the London-based speculative realism movement to new revivals of Derrida. As indicated by the title The Speculative Turn, the new currents of continental philosophy depart from the text-centered hermeneutic models of the past and engage in daring speculations about the nature of reality itself. This anthology assembles authors, of several generations and numerous nationalities, who will be at the centre of debate in continental philosophy for decades to come."

Continental Materialism and Realism

The Speculative Turn

Inventare il futuro. Per un mondo senza lavoro

Изобретая будущее. Посткапитализм и мир без труда

Capitalismo de plataformas

El neoliberalismo no está funcionando. A lo largo de las últimas décadas, las políticas económicas neoliberales han arrastrado a millones de personas a la pobreza y a otras muchas a trabajos precarios y mal pagados. Entretanto, la izquierda se mantiene atrapada en una serie de prácticas que rara vez ofrecen un respiro y menos aún una solución a la crisis. Este libro propone, finalmente, una alternativa. "Inventar el futuro" es un audaz manifiesto sobre la vida después del capitalismo. En contra de los voceros de la derecha que una y otra vez proclaman el fin de la historia, Nick Srnicek y Alex Williams –autores del célebre "Manifiesto aceleracionista"– demuestran en estas páginas que otro mundo es posible. Opuestos a los ideólogos de izquierda que temen irracionalmente a los avances tecnológicos, Srnicek y Williams demandan una economía poscapitalista en la que la tecnología nos libere del trabajo y amplíe nuestras libertades. Ésta es una obra de radical imaginación política y un llamado a "inventar el futuro" antes de que se nos imponga.

Postcapitalismo y un mundo sin trabajo

Inventar el futuro

Neoliberalism isn't working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite. Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto for life after capitalism. Against the confused understanding of our high-tech world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams demand a postcapitalist economy capable of advancing standards, liberating humanity from work and developing technologies that expand our freedoms. This new edition includes a new chapter where they respond to their various critics.

Postcapitalism and a World Without Work

A major new manifesto for the end of capitalism Neoliberalism isn’t working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite. Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto for life after capitalism. Against the confused understanding of our high-tech world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams demand a postcapitalist economy capable of advancing standards, liberating humanity from work and developing technologies that expand our freedoms. This new edition includes a new chapter where they respond to their various critics.

Tanith Tyrr

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