Hegemony Now

A landmark piece of work combining theoretical rigour and innovation with a magisterial mapping of the landscape of contemporary power. Gilbert and Williams have produced an essential guide to socialist strategy today. -- Nick Srnicek Gilbert and Williams offer practical and hopeful strategies for changing the "directions of travel" of the contemporary conjuncture - especially in the U.S. and U.K. But what makes Hegemony Now uniquely impressive is how seamlessly their politics emerges from their sophisticated analysis of the conditions and actualities of the present. Grounded in rich theorizing and a strong commitment to historical specificity, they pull post-Marxism back from the brink by taking up the under-theorized concept of material interests. Mapping the relations among economics, politics, and culture, they refuse to give in to the seductions of simplicity, choosing instead to make visible some of the complexities and contradictions that have produced a distinct set of interconnected crises. This is a book that crosses the divide between political economy and cultural studies, but it is a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of the apparent chaos of contemporary life and the possibilities for a better future. -- Lawrence Grossberg In engaging and accessible prose, Gilbert and Williams provide an astute political analysis of our current conjuncture...an important provocation for the left. -- Michael Hardt In the process of clarifying and updating the often misunderstood (and occasionally maligned) concept of hegemony, Gilbert and Williams also provide us with a valuable analysis of the "long 1990s": an account of its constitution, a diagnosis of its crisis and a map for its overcoming. Anyone committed to the latter must engage with this book. -- Rodrigo Nunes, author of <i>Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organisation</i> The task for socialists is to live without illusions without becoming disillusioned. Gilbert and Williams have written a timely contribution in how the left acts strategically - learning from the successes and failures of the last decade. -- Aaron Bastani [Gilbert and Williams] have done a brilliant job stripping away much of the complexity that makes post and neo-Marxist language so difficult to engage with for ordinary mortals ... this book repays close attention. -- Gavin O'Toole * Morning Star *

Alex Williams is a political theorist and lecturer in digital media and society currently based at the University of East Anglia. His writings include Political Hegemony and Social Complexity, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism & a World Without Work (with Nick Srnicek), as well as numerous articles on the future of left politics and contemporary formations of digital power. Jeremy Gilbert is Professor of Cultural & Political Theory at the University of East London. He is the author of Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism, Anticapitalism and Culture: Radical Theory and Popular Politics and Twenty-First Century Socialism. He writes regularly in the British press, is the current editor of the journal New Formations, and hosts three regular podcasts: #ACFM (on Novara Media); Love is the Message; Culture, Power, Politics.