New column for The Guardian, on the “animal spirits” that drove up Johnson’s value, and could quickly abandon him.
‘If Boris Johnson were a stock, canny investors would be looking to unload’
‘Theory wars: how postmodernism became weaponised’
Review of Stuart Jeffries new book, Everything All The Time Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern, published in The New Statesman.
‘Post-Neoliberalism?’
Nicholas Gane and I have co-edited a special issue of Theory Culture & Society on the theme of ‘Post-neoliberalism?’. It features articles by Melinda Cooper, Quinn Slobodian, Dorit Geva, Roger Burrows and Harrison Smith, Alan Finlayson, Nicholas Gane and me, on various aspects of the challenges to neoliberalism, especially those from the political Right. The special issue was accepted and the pieces commissioned prior to 2020, so they don’t confront the most recent upheavals and challenges to the political-economic order. However, the Introduction (which is open access) does address the significance of the Covid-19 pandemic, and what it means for the status of ‘neoliberalism’.
‘Peter Thiel: Big Tech’s dark prophet’
I reviewed Max Chafkin’s book on Peter Thiel, The Contrarian, for The New Statesman
‘When others stay silent about the ills of British capitalism, liars like Johnson rush in’
Comment piece published in The Guardian, on Boris Johnson’s dubious claims for a new ‘economic model’.
Punishing the young serves Johnson’s politics of nostalgia
Guardian comment piece on derisory ‘catch-up’ funding and failure to recognise the sacrifices made by children.
Review of Gordon Brown’s book
I reviewed Seven Ways to Change the World by Gordon Brown for The Guardian
Friend or threat?
Article for London Review of Books on the crisis of hospitality wrought by the pandemic.
‘The secret of Johnson’s success lies in his break with Treasury dominance’
New column for The Guardian, on the long shadow of Gordon Brown, and how Johnson has escaped it.
‘The Politics of Recognition in the Age of Social Media’
Article published in New Left Review, exploring how the politics of recognition is transformed by the technologies of platform capitalism.
‘Johnson’s Tories are reaping the rewards of an economy built on house prices’
Comment piece for The Guardian, on the political and cultural consequences of Britain’s post-2008 model of capitalism, in which all the gains go to asset-owners.
New journal article
‘The financialization of anti-capitalism?: The Case of the ‘Financial Independence Retire Early’ community’, jointly authored with Nick Taylor, is now published in Journal of Cultural Economy
Review of The Assault on Truth
I reviewed Peter Oborne’s new book, The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism, for The Guardian.
Review of Brexitland
I reviewed Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford’s Brexitland, on the rise of Remain/Leave identities, for the London Review of Books.
The history of The Spectator
A review essay, published at the New Left Review blog, on the history of The Spectator and what it tells us about Britain’s new political elite.
William Davies 