William Davies (political writer)

Last updated

William Davies
Born1976
EducationUniversity of London
Occupation(s)Author, critic
Main interests
Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Happiness, Expertise, Consumerism
Notable ideas
"Anti-Philosophical Agnosticism", "The Happiness Industry", "Demedicalization of Psychiatry"
Website https://williamdavies.blog/

William Davies (born 1976) is an English writer, political and sociological theorist. His work focuses on the issues of consumerism, happiness, and the history and function of expertise on society. Davies has written for a variety of newspapers and periodicals including The Guardian , New Left Review , London Review of Books , and The Atlantic . In 2015 Davies published his second book The Happiness Industry , which assesses the relationship between consumer capitalism, big data and positive psychology. Davies is Professor of Political Economy at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is Co-Director of The Political Economy Research Centre in London. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Works

Selected articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capitalism</span> Economic system based on private ownership

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.

In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any other external authority. Proponents of the free market as a normative ideal contrast it with a regulated market, in which a government intervenes in supply and demand by means of various methods such as taxes or regulations. In an idealized free market economy, prices for goods and services are set solely by the bids and offers of the participants.

Neoliberalism, also neo-liberalism, is a term used to signify the late-20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent factor in the rise of conservative and right-libertarian organizations, political parties, and think tanks, and predominantly advocated by them, it is generally associated with policies of economic liberalization, including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, monetarism, austerity, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. The defining features of neoliberalism in both thought and practice have been the subject of substantial scholarly debate.

The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a re-evaluation of political policies within various centre to centre-left progressive movements in the 1980s in response to doubt regarding the economic viability of the state and the perceived overuse of economic interventionist policies that had previously been popularised by Keynesianism, but which at that time contrasted with the rise of popularity for neoliberalism and the New Right starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Panitch</span> Canadian Marxist academic

Leo Victor Panitch was a distinguished research professor of political science and a Canada Research Chair in comparative political economy at York University. From 1985 until the 2021 edition, he served as co-editor of the Socialist Register, which describes itself as "an annual survey of movements and ideas from the standpoint of the independent new left". Panitch himself saw the Register as playing a major role in developing Marxism's conceptual framework for advancing a democratic, co-operative and egalitarian socialist alternative to capitalist competition, exploitation, and insecurity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Fraser</span> American philosopher

Nancy Fraser is an American philosopher, critical theorist, feminist, and the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City. Widely known for her critique of identity politics and her philosophical work on the concept of justice, Fraser is also a staunch critic of contemporary liberal feminism and its abandonment of social justice issues. Fraser holds honorary doctoral degrees from four universities in three countries, and won the 2010 Alfred Schutz Prize in Social Philosophy from the American Philosophical Association. She is president of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division.

Post-capitalism is a hypothetical state in which the economic systems of the world can no longer be described as forms of capitalism. Various individuals and political ideologies have speculated on what would define such a world. According to classical Marxist and social evolutionary theories, post-capitalist societies may come about as a result of spontaneous evolution as capitalism becomes obsolete. Others propose models to intentionally replace capitalism, most notably socialism, communism, anarchism, nationalism and degrowth.

The history of capitalism is diverse and the concept of capitalism has many debated roots. The history of the past 500 years is concerned with the development of capitalism in its various forms. Capital accumulated by a variety of methods, at a variety of scales, became associated with much variation in the concentration of wealth and economic power. Capitalism gradually became the dominant economic system throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of capitalism</span> Arguments against the economic system of capitalism

Criticism of capitalism ranges from expressing disagreement with the principles of capitalism in its entirety to expressing disagreement with particular outcomes of capitalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Gindin</span>

Sam Gindin is a Canadian intellectual and activist known for his expertise on the labour movement and the economics of the automobile industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic model</span> Social and economic model in Nordic countries

The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common to the Nordic countries. This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level collective bargaining based on the economic foundations of social corporatism, and a commitment to private ownership within a market-based mixed economy — with Norway being a partial exception due to a large number of state-owned enterprises and state ownership in publicly listed firms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frédéric Lordon</span> French economist (born 1962)

Frédéric Lordon is a French economist and philosopher, CNRS Director of Research at the Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique in Paris. He is an influential figure in France's Nuit debout movement and has regularly contributed to French broadcast and print media on French and European politics, and also writes a regular opinion column for Le Monde diplomatique. He has argued in favour of Communism as an alternative to Capitalism in books, articles and media appearances, and has been engaged in a project of re-grounding the social sciences in a Spinoza-inspired materialism. He is considered one of the most prominent intellectual voices of the radical left in France today.

Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a market socialist economy or an alternative form of a decentralised planned socialist economy. Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom, equality, and solidarity and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society. Although most democratic socialists seek a gradual transition to socialism, democratic socialism can support revolutionary or reformist politics to establish socialism. Democratic socialism was popularised by socialists who opposed the backsliding towards a one-party state in the Soviet Union and other nations during the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jodi Dean</span> American political theorist (born 1962)

Jodi Dean is an American political theorist and professor in the Political Science department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York state. She held the Donald R. Harter ’39 Professorship of the Humanities and Social Sciences from 2013 to 2018. Dean has also held the position of Erasmus Professor of the Humanities in the Faculty of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is the author and editor of thirteen books. Her most recent book is titled Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Streeck</span> German economic sociologist (born 1946)

Wolfgang Streeck is a German economic sociologist and emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.

<i>Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed</i>

Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed is a 2009 book by British journalist and writer Paul Mason. An updated edition was released in 2010.

<i>Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work</i> 2015 monograph by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams

Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work is a 2015 monograph by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, published by Verso Books.

<i>The Happiness Industry</i>

The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being is a 2015 book written by William Davies, in which the author proposes that the contemporary notions of happiness and well-being are being warped by the forces of numerous governmental and business institutions to transform happiness, as a concept, into something that promotes consumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quinn Slobodian</span> Canadian historian and professor

Quinn Slobodian is a Canadian historian of modern Germany and international history who has been Marion Butler McLean Professor of the History of Ideas at Wellesley College since 2022. He previously was a Residential Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University in 2017–8.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Malm</span> Swedish author and professor

Andreas Malm is a Swedish author and an associate professor of human ecology at Lund University. He is on the editorial board of the academic journal Historical Materialism, and has been described as a Marxist. Naomi Klein, who quoted Malm in her book This Changes Everything, describes him as "one of the most original thinkers on the subject" of climate change.

References

  1. "Verso". www.versobooks.com. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  2. Davies, WIlliam. "William Davies". williamdavies.blog. Wordpress. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  3. "William Davies". Versobooks.com. Verso.