Welcome
I am a writer, scholar and political commentator interested in judgment and justice, ideologies, democracy's troubles with capitalism and capitalism's devious talent for survival. I draw on history of ideas and political sociology to produce (hopefully) politically salient and critical analyses of modern societies. I'm currently a tenured Associate Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies.
Capitalism is not on its deathbed, utopia is not in our future, and revolution is not in the cards. And yet, the time is ripe for radical progressive change.
My latest book
My latest book
"This is the big-think book of our time", James Galbraith, interview. Read his review "The Pandemic and Capitalism".
Read more
Upcoming
Populism and the Recasting of the Ideological Landscape of Liberal Democracies Book Chapter
in The Palgrave Handbook of Populism edited by Michael Oswald
Postcapitalism: The Return of Radical Critique Book Chapter
in Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory edited by Gerard Delanty and Stephen P. Turner
Latest
Discussing with James Galbraith the future of work Public Lecture
Organized by The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas, Law School
James Galbraith and Albena Azmanova debate strategies for post-Covid social transformation, focusing on the work-related contradictions of capitalism Azmanova identifies in her book Capitalism on Edge. She has argued that while the new economy does not generate good jobs for all, we are increasingly reliant on holding a job, but she rejects the two popular strategies for solving this conundrum: active job creation and universal basic income.
Zoom meeting details
Book launch: Peter Fleming's new Dark Academia: How Universities Die Public Lecture
Organized by Pluto Press
Peter Fleming's new book records the acute pathologies afflicting universities as workplaces and laboratories of knowledge and learning. Join his discussion with Will Davies and, Gargi Bhattacharyya and chair Albena Azmanova
The Future of Democracy in a World of Uncertainty Public Lecture
ENA Institute @ Delphi Economic Forum VI
Organized by ENA Institute for Alternative Policies
Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University), Göran Therborn (Cambridge University) and Albena Azmanova (Kent University) offer their diagnoses on the state of liberal democracy and their prognoses for progressive social transformation.
Event details
Do We Need a Post-Covid Economic Revolution? Public Lecture
Europa im Diskurs - Debating Europe
Organized by The Institute for Human Sciences (IWM)
The Covid-19-pandemic and the economic crisis it triggered is not only upsetting fiscal and social policies in most industrialized countries, but also the debate among economists about the role of the state, the future of work and the balance between necessary economic growth and the needs to fight global warming. How many of these new ideas will persist once the pandemic is over? Has the time for a new approach to economics finally arrived?
Event details
IWM Monthly lecture Public Lecture
Capitalism on Edge
Organized by The Institute for Human Sciences (IWM)
In discussion with Wolfgang Merkel, Albena Azmanova addresses the implications of her analysis in Capitalism on Edge for the renewal of progressive politics after the Covid-19 crisis
How Precarity Puts Capitalism on Edge Interview
Organized by The William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance
Mark Blyth and Albena Azmanova explore the roots of economic precarity, the reasons it’s more dangerous and destabilizing than inequality alone, and why addressing it will require mixing tried-and-true economic policies with a radical rethinking of how our economy is structured.
Capitalism at a Crossroads OpEd
Western democracies are at the tipping point of a tectonic policy shift; our societies are ready to venture into a new direction. Where should we go from here? If we want to advance, we need to abandon these blueprints of capitalism, socialism, or the right mix of the two, and think afresh.
Safe speech vs free speech: higher education’s false dilemma OpEd
In the ‘cancel culture’ era, universities should remember that the original purpose of free speech was to empower the weak, not to shelter them
"Sicurezza" contro "libertà" di parola: il falso dilemma dell’istruzione superiore OpEd
Universities in the US and UK have become a battleground in the war between safe speech / places and freedom of expression. My thesis is that this is a false dilemma. Understanding it will allow us to identify the social forces that dictate it.
Bad Stimulus: Government Payments to Individuals Are a Terrible Way to Solve America’s Structural Economic Problems OpEd
with Marshall Auerback
Most commentary on the Biden stimulus plan has focused on some of the programs or the overall level of spending, and not the structure and philosophy. This article describes why continuing a classic neoliberal approach is at best a band-aid.
