Paul Masons ‘Postkapitalisme’

“I to hundrede år har kapitalismen blomstret takket være en unik tilpasningsevne. Hver gang kriser har truet dens eksistens, har den transformeret sig og rejst sig endnu stærkere end før. Men nu er grænsen nået, mener Paul Mason. Informationsteknologiens indtog har sat gang i en revolution, som har potentialet til fuldstændig at ændre vores opfattelse af arbejde, produktion og værdi.” Engelsk udgave: PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future (Allen Lane, 2015, 368 p.).

Se også på Socialistisk Bibliotek:

Emneoversigten: Økonomi / Economy
Emneoversigten: Bøger / Books

Indhold

• Leksikale / Sites
• På dansk
• In English

Leksikale / Sites

• PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future (Wikipedia.org).
• Paul Mason (journalist) (Wikipedia.org).
• Paul Mason (site). With Extract from the book + Videos.
• Paul Mason (The Guardian).

På dansk

Information.dk

• Labour-ideolog: Socialdemokraterne skal rykke mod venstre. Af Mette-Line Thorup (8. februar 2017). “Det er et kritisk år for de europæiske socialdemokratier. Hvis ikke de gør op med hensynet til indvandrere og søger bort fra midten i den økonomiske politik, ender de med at overflødiggøre sig selv, siger den britiske forfatter og Corbyn-støtte Paul Mason.”
• ‘Kapitalismens undergang er begyndt’ (7. oktober 2016). Niels Ivar Larsen interviewer Paul Mason: “Informationsteknologien er motoren i en social omvæltning, der vil bringe os ind i en postkapitalistisk æra – og vi er allerede godt på vej, hævder Paul Mason.”
• Kapitalismen undergraves indefra. Af Rune Møller Stahl (26. marts 2016). “Det er kapitalismens egen skyld, at de sidste års økonomiske kriser ikke har været til at komme ud af, skriver den britiske forfatter Paul Mason … Men har han ret? Andre økonomiske tænkere er ikke så sikre.”

Modkraft.dk

• De lange bølger. Af Curt Sørensen (3. oktober 2016). “Et af de bedste bidrag til den moderne diskussion, som jeg længe har læst … Man må håbe, at hans bog også vil komme til at indgå som et vægtigt bidrag i den danske venstrefløjs diskussion. Den er højst anbefalelsesværdig.” Også online på Kritisk Debat (17. oktober 2016) + på Slagmark (nr.75, forår 2017).

Politiken.dk

• Britisk journalist kommer med et brag og angriber kapitalismen forfra. Af Rune Lykkeberg (9. september 2015). “I Paul Masons kaotiske bog er kapitalismen ikke nødvendigvis verdens facit … den er fremragende som forsøg på at tænke frit og åbent over de mange forskellige tendenser, fænomener, politikker og teorier, som er vor tids kapitalisme.”

Slagmark: Tidsskrift for Idéhistorie

• Et spøgelse går gennem Europa, informationsteknologiens spøgelse: et interview med Paul Mason. Af Malise Rosbech (nr.75, forår 2017). “Jeg mødte Mason på en lille cafe i det sydlige London for at høre mere om hans bog Postkapitalisme, som netop er udkommet på dansk.

In English

Counterfire

• Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future. By Sean Ledwith (October 7, 2015). “Can technology on its own bring about a better society, as Paul Mason’s PostCapitalism suggests, or do we need revolutionary politics.”

Green Left Weekly

• Paul Mason’s wild ride to a socialist future. By Barry Healy (April 3, 2016). “This book, full of points of contention, is to be welcomed — Mason is on the progressive side of the barricades.”

The Guardian

• The end of capitalism has begun. By Paul Mason (17 July 2015). “Without us noticing, we are entering the postcapitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian.” Extract from PostCapitalism.

In Defence of Marxism

• The sharing economy, the future of jobs, and “PostCapitalism”, part three. By Adam Booth (13 October 2015). “Nevertheless, despite its limitations, PostCapitalism is an extremely useful read for anyone who wants a thorough and revealing insight into the contradictions of capitalism and how they are manifested today in this era of information and the internet.”

The Independent

• Paul Mason interview: The Channel 4 firebrand reveals his formula for a ‘gift’ economy. By John Rentoul (2 August 2015). “Capitalism? It’s had its day, says the rabble-rousing Channel 4 News economics editor who grew up a revolutionary socialist” + ‘A Martian stranded on Earth’: more of the Paul Mason interview (9 August 2015).

International Socialism

• Brand new, you’re retro. By Joseph Choonara (Issue 148, Autumn 2015, p.161-178). “One of the most striking things about Paul Mason’s latest work, PostCapitalism, is just how passé his vision of the future is. There is little here that has not appeared in the writing of André Gorz or Daniel Bell, in the works of Antonio Negri, or in Manuel Castell …”
• A response to Joseph Choonara. By Pete Green (Issue 149, Winter 2016, p.197-204). “I was disappointed that his review either failed to acknowledge, or seriously misread, Mason’s illuminating if sketchy observations on the relevance of Marx’s theory of value to exploring the deeply contradictory character of contemporary capitalism …”
• A reply to Pete Green. By Joseph Choonara (Issue 150, Spring 2016, p.203-207). “Pete has his obsessions and I have mine, and a book as ­provocative as Mason’s certainly does not encourage an innocent reading. However, some of Pete’s objections did not make much sense to me.”

International Socialist Review

• The path of least resistance? By Danny Katch (Issue 105, Summer 2017, p.148-150). “While there are many valuable insights in Postcapitalism, I’m going to focus on what I think are pretty gaping holes in its central thesis.”

Irish Marxist Review

• PostCapitalism – A Guide to Our Future (pdf). By Dave O’Farrell (Vol.4, No.14, 2015, p.89-96). “While Mason has produced an interesting and at times engaging read ultimately what he offers … [is] more like a pick and mix collection of the kind of thinking that has become popular amongst a large number of modern theorists and activists – with a fair helping of a sort of techno-utopian spin.

Jacobin: Reason in Revolt

• Workers aren’t disappearing. By Doug Henwood (20 July 2015). “Paul Mason is wrong. Capitalists need workers, just as they always have.”

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

• Postcapitalism. By Frederick H. Pitts (4 September 2015). “It is recommended to those old and new to Marxist thought as an ideal introduction to autonomist Marxism. Mason shares autonomism’s fascination with Marx’s ‘Fragment on Machines’.”

Michael Roberts Blog

• Paul Mason and postcapitalism: utopian or scientific? (July 21, 2015). “But Mason also seems to be saying that this new information/knowledge revolution is by-passing the contradictions of capitalism, the law of value and the exploitation of labour by capital. If so, then he is wrong.”
• See also Michael Roberts: Robots and AI: utopia or dystopia? Part One (August 23, 2015) + Part Two (August 29, 2015) + Part Three (September 24, 2015).

New Left Review

• The free machine. By Rob Lucas (Issue 100, July-August 2015, p.130-143). “Paul Mason’s Postcapitalism is an ambitious book, spanning economic history and theory, the trajectory of socialism, diagnosis of the crisis-prone present and a strategic vision for the future.”

The Project: A Socialist Journal

• Mick Brooks review PostCapitalism by Paul Mason (September 2, 2015; online at Internet Archive). “First the good news – according to Mason capitalism is likely to disappear off the face of the earth. Now the bad news – it will not be replaced by socialism, but by ‘postcapitalism’. What is this beast?”

Real-World Economics Review

• Paul Mason’s PostCapitalism (pdf). By Donald Gillies (Issue 73, December 2015, p.110-119). “The central thesis of the book is that because of new technologies (the  internet  and associated  developments), capitalism is in decline and is likely to be replaced within a few decades by an entirely new socio-economic system.”

Red Pepper

• Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future (October 15, 2015). “Hilary Wainwright reviews Paul Mason’s latest book and questions how far information technology is leading us towards a post-capitalist economy.”

Socialism Today

• Socialism: past or future? By Peter Taafe (Issue 191, September 2015). “Paul Mason presents a vision of a new society, without the horrors of the current capitalist system. However, he no longer sees the possibility of mass working-class struggle to change society and dismisses socialism as an old idea whose time has passed.”

Socialist Resistance

• The Revolution will not be downloaded. By Farooq Sulehria (July 20, 2016). “Borrowing, in an eclectic manner, from Marx, Antonio Negri, Manuel Castells (though Castells is not acknowledged) and Peter Drucker, the postcapitalism conceived by Mason suffers from two major and interlocking flaws.”

Socialist Worker

• Postcapitalism – will the system die a natural death? By Dave Sewell (Issue 2465, 4 August 2015). “Journalist Paul Mason’s new book claims that a ‘post-capitalist’ world can emerge without the need for a workers’ revolution—but his arguments don’t stack up.”

Weekly Worker

• No substitute for politics (Issue 1105, 5 May 2016). “Is it really as simple as ‘social networks vs the hierarchies’? Yassamine Mather takes issue with Paul Mason.”
  Same old ephemeral new. By Mick Last (Issue 1130, 10 November 2016). “Paul Mason may now be championing ‘consensus democracy’, but its failings have long been established.”

A World to Win

• Mason’s starry-eyed guide to the future. By Gerry Gold (18 January 2016). “In the background, guiding Mason’s pick-and-mix approach to editing history and the lessons it offers, are a number of key methodological choices, and they begin to surface as he begins to chart what he suggests is ‘our route to the future’.”