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Books and magazines read and loved by the Verso staff in 2020

Brett Christophers, author of Rentier Capitalism, on the extraordinary dominance of monopolistic rent-seeking in the UK economy, in the latest episode of the Politics Theory Other podcast. 

As carelessness takes hold in so many domains of life, and as community ties are profoundly weakened, the family is often encouraged to step in as society’s preferred infrastructure of care.

In Automation and the Future of Work, Aaron Benanav uncovers the structural economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future. What social movements, he asks, are required to propel us into post-scarcity, if technological innovation alone can’t deliver it?

In the aftermath of the assassination of Samuel Paty, Jacques Ranciere demands that we rethink the relationship between the state, secularism and the freedom of expression.

This open letter, signed among others by Virginie Despentes, Adèle Haenel, Annie Ernaux, Jean-François Bayart and Alexis Jenni, deplores the fact that the link between Western military interventions and terrorist attacks is never questioned.

Jean-François Bayart, professor of political sociology, argues that the denunciation of ‘Islamo-leftism’ rests on a misunderstanding of history and reveals the consolidation of a ‘republican McCarthyism’ at the heart of the state and the media.

Where did the future go? Anton Jäger and Daniel Zamora on the short-sightedness of calls for a universal basic income. Part II of the Verso Roundtable on Automation and the Future of Work. 

On 8 October 2019, riot police and other armed security forces violently evicted what had come to be known as L’Amassada, a ZAD (Zone-to-Defend) occupation in Saint-Victor-et-Melvieu in southern France. The following, written a year after the eviction, outlines the goals, structure, and accomplishments of the occupation as well as the political and environmental context of ongoing ZAD struggles against the economic and ecological destruction required by “green” development. 

The last friday of November every year has, in recent decades, become known as 'Black Friday', the busiest shopping day of the year. This year, coming in the middle of a global pandemic that for most people has dramatically shrunk the size of their physical and social orbit, the consumerist highs of the holiday season will be particularly stressful. Tansy E. Hoskins looks at the need, this year more than before, to move beyond capitalism's drive to consume.

Craig Gent analyses the role of unions and potential for social movements in creating a workers' future without scarcity. Part of the Verso Roundtable on Automation and the Future of Work. 

Introducing this month's Verso Roundtable, a series of three articles in conversation with Aaron Benanav's new book Automation and the Future of Work.