Sociology, Capitalism, Critique

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 Dörre, 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.“‘Wherever you look these days,’ wrote the German sociologists Klaus Dörre, Stephan Lessenich and Hartmut Rosa, ‘the critique of capitalism has become quite fashionable.’ Their book Sociology, Capitalism, Critique is not just fashionable: instead it resuscitates critical theory for new times, and takes the side of the losers in the financial crisis.”
—Stuart Jeffries, Guardian

“An original triptych of German sociological critiques of current capitalism which deserves to be read in the anglophone world.”
—Göran Therborn, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Cambridge

“Here is the eagerly awaited translation of Dörre, Lessenich and Rosa’s original diagnosis of the destructive dynamics of contemporary capitalism and its legitimation crises. Rejuvenating the great German tradition of critical theory, they offer a brilliant three-way debate that reignites both sociology and Marxism.”
—Michael Burawoy, Professor of Sociology, University of California, BerkeleyKlaus Dörre is Professor of Sociology at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena (Germany) where he chairs the Department of Labor, Industrial and Economic Sociology. He specialises in the Sociology of Labour as well as industrial and economic sociology. His areas of research include the theory of capitalism, finance capitalism, flexible and precarious employment, labour relations and strategic unionism, and the Green New Deal, among others. He is the current director of the German Research Foundation research group Post-Growth Societies.

Hartmut Rosa has been a Full Professor for Sociology and Sociological Theory at the Institute of Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, since October 2005. His areas of study include theories of modernity, sociology of time, communitarianism, and social theory. He is the author of Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity.

Stephan Lessenich is co-director (together with Klaus Dörre and Hartmut Rosa) of the German Research Foundation research group “Post-Growth Societies,” and is currently Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig-Maximillians-University in Munich (Germany).