IDEAS IN MOTION

This episode presents a longer overview of Chapter 5 of the book Capital Redefined. This chapter revisits and reconstructs the Marxian labor theory of value by drawing on the commonist framework. The core argument is that 'labor' is an outcome of the decommonization of human (and by extension, more-than-human) creative power through the abstraction and appropriation of infra-processes. The...

This episode presents a longer overview of Chapter 4 of the book Capital Redefined. The chapter provides a sophisticated modular framework for understanding capital as a destructive, expansionist value regime that actively decommonizes fundamental sources of true value, converting them into reified and fetishized forms for appropriation. It highlights the interplay between these processes and the...

This episode presents a short overview of Chapter 4 of the book Capital Redefined. The chapter provides a sophisticated modular framework for understanding capital as a destructive, expansionist value regime that actively decommonizes fundamental sources of true value, converting them into reified and fetishized forms for appropriation. It highlights the interplay between these processes and the c...

This episode presents an overview of the third chapter of Hosseini and Gill's book Capital Redefined. This chapter introduces a "modular approach" for theorizing capital, aiming to move beyond traditional Marxist value theories and provide a more integrative social theory of capitalist socio-ecological relations. The authors argue for a redefinition of capital that acknowledges its c...

"The history of all hitherto existing societies... is the history of two separate yet overlapping ideal types of struggles: one is between the value makers and value takers within the dominant value regime over the distribution of value, and the other, a more decisive one, over ‘what ought to constitute value’ and the foundational structure of the value regime itself." This episode presents an ove...

This episode presents an overview of the first chapter of the book Capital Redefined by Hosseini and Gills. In this chapter, The authors propose that if we accept that  any quality necessary or advantageous for the survival and self-fulfillment of organized life (human and non-human) is of undeniable 'value,' and if capitalism is a socio-ecological formation where the ultimate sources of t...

This podcast episode explores the radical idea of moving beyond economic growth and capitalism to build a society based on  Well-Living . It introduces the  Well-Living Paradigm  as a framework that redefines quality of life around principles like living in harmony with the Earth ( liveability ), valuing relationships and care ( conviviality ), fostering imagination ( creativity ), and embracing d...

This podcast transcript argues against the common perception of "utopia" as a naive, unattainable fantasy. Instead, it posits that utopian thinking, when understood as a method, can be a powerful tool for critiquing existing systems and actively building better societies. The core arguments are structured around Ruth Levitas's three-step method for utopian thinking and the concept of...

This episode presents a conversational overview of the first part of the article: Hosseini, S. A. H. (2023)  The Well-Living ParadigmLinks to an external site. : Reimagining Quality of Life in Our Turbulent World, Discover Global Society, 1(19), 1-22.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s44282-023-00022-8Links to an external site.  Or  https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s44282-023-00022-8.pdf This...

This episode presents a conversational overview of the first part of the article:Hosseini, S. A. H. (2023)  The Well-Living Paradigm Links to an external site. : Reimagining Quality of Life in Our Turbulent World,  Discover Global Society , 1(19), 1-22.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s44282-023-00022-8Links to an external site. Or  https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s44282-023-00022-8.pdf Thi...

This episode presents an overview of the following source: Giorgi, C. (2022)  Utopia , in B. Skeggs, S. R. Farris, A. Toscano & S. Bromberg (eds.)  The Sage Handbook of Marxism  (pp. 1234-50),The chapter argues that while Marx and Engels critiqued utopian socialism for lacking historical grounding and ignoring class struggle, the concept of utopia, particularly in its "concrete" form as develo...

This episode presents a conversational overview of the following source: Dawson, M. (2017)  Sociology and Utopia , in M. Dawson (ed.)  Social Theory for Alternative Societies  (pp. 162-79), United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. The chapter suggests that the history of sociology is marked by "subterranean utopian currents," which figures like Levitas and Wright are now openly bringin...

This episode presents an overview of the following source: Ejsing, M. (2023).  The Arrival of the Anthropocene in Social Theory : From Modernism and Marxism Towards a New Materialism.  The Sociological Review (Keele) , 71(1), 243-60.

This episode presents a conversational overview of the following source: Luke, T. W. (2017). Reconstructing social theory and the Anthropocene.  European Journal of Social Theory ,  20 (1), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431016647971The author, Timothy W. Luke, argues that while the scientific concept of the Anthropocene (a new geological age defined by human-caused changes to the Earth) is si...

This episode presents a conversational overview of the following source:Stevenson, N. (2021)  Critical Theory in the Anthropocene : Marcuse, Marxism and Ecology,  European journal of social theory , 24(2), 211-26.

The episode presents an overview of the following source: Huber, M. (2022)  Climate Change , in B. Skeggs, S. R. Farris, A. Toscano & S. Bromberg (eds.)  The Sage Handbook of Marxism , The author, Matt Huber, gives us a Marxist perspective on the climate crisis, aiming to provide a clear explanation of its causes and potential solutions. The chapter builds its argument key point by key point,...

The episode presents an overview of the following source:Fraser, N. (2022).  Nature in the Maw: Why Ecopolitics Must Be Trans-Environmental and Anti-Capitalist , in  Cannibal Capitalism  (pp. Ch. 4), United States: Verso Books,

The episode presents an overview of the following source: Ritzer, G. & Stepnisky, J. (2022)  Chapter 12 - Science, Technology, and Nature,  in   Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics , Los Angeles: SAGE.  à Sections on Theories of the Anthropocene  (pp. 409-419)

This podcast episode, "Empowerment or Control? Surveillance Capitalism and the Algorithmic Capture of Affect" explores the conflict between the perceived empowerment offered by digital platforms and the underlying reality of surveillance capitalism. It argues that while platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok promise wider reach and smarter matches, they operate through an architec...

This podcast episode explores the  increasing integration of technology with human bodies , questioning traditional definitions of humanity in light of advancements like neural implants and genetic editing. It examines  posthumanism , the idea that human identity is intertwined with technology and the environment, alongside  digital embodiment , which considers how digital capitalism shapes our ph...

The source under discussion as: Mau, S. (2022)  The   Body , in B. Skeggs, S. R. Farris, A. Toscano & S. Bromberg (eds.)  The Sage Handbook of Marxism  (pp. 1268-86) This chapter from the Sage Handbook of Marxism, titled "The Body" by Søren Mau, offers a comprehensive look at how the concept of the body has been understood within Marxist thought, from Marx's own writings to conte...

The source under discussion is: Dowling, E. (2022)  Affect , in B. Skeggs, S. R. Farris, A. Toscano & S. Bromberg (eds.)  The Sage Handbook of Marxism  (pp. 1251-67), 

This discussion is based on the following resource:Bacevic, J. (2019)  With or without U? Assemblage Theory and (De)Territorialising the University,  Globalisation, Societies and Education , 17(1), 78-91.  https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2018.1498323

The source under discusson is: Elliott, A. & Lemert, C. C. (2022)  Chapter 12-   The Digital Revolution: Posthumanism and Beyond  in:  Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction  (pp. 375-405), Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge

Source: Ritzer, G. & Stepnisky, J. (2022)  Chapter 12: Science, Technology, and Nature  Download Chapter 12: Science, Technology, and Nature ,  in   Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics , Los Angeles: SAGE,  Sections on “Affect Theory and the New Materialism"; “Science Studies and Actor-Network Theory”  (pp. 389-408)