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".
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Latest
On the 1989's lost insights Public Lecture
Organized by Central and Eastern European Forum of Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists
Keynote address at the 13th CEE Forum of Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists: "Political Imagination and Utopian Energies in Central and Eastern Europe", Charles University, Prague, 16 Sept.
Hidden Letters Public Lecture
Poetry, Precarity and Post-Covid Monuments
Organized by Just Festivals
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines not only of the fiscal and economic policies in most industrialized countries, but also in the debate among poets and politicians about the role of the state and culture, the future of work and the search for an alternative beyond the capitalism-socialism dichotomy. How many of these new ideas and poems will persist once the pandemic is over? Has the time for a new approach to poetry, politics and economics finally arrived? Join us for a discussion about poetry activism, precarity and post-COVID monuments with Scottish and Bulgarian poets and political scientists.
Does inequality matter or is precarity the real problem? Public Lecture
Organized by Future of Money
Future of Money will be hosting Albena Azmanova, the author of the widely acclaimed book "Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia.".
Professor Azmanova makes a fascinating contribution to the debate around contemporary society arguing that the key issue of our age is precarity or insecurity rather than inequality.
Author Meets Critics Public Lecture
Panel discussion on Capitalism on Edge
Organized by Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics
The wake of the financial crisis has inspired hopes for dramatic change and stirred visions of capitalism’s terminal collapse. Yet capitalism is not on its deathbed, utopia is not in our future, and revolution is not in the cards. In Capitalism on Edge, Albena Azmanova demonstrates that radical progressive change is still attainable, but it must come from an unexpected direction.
We will have to find a way out of capitalism Interview
Organized by Die Zeit
The successes of the right showed a longing for security, especially in the pandemic, says the political scientist Albena Azmanova. The left ignore that.
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
Capitalism, Democracy, Socialism Book
Critical Debates
This book, collectively authored by members of the Research Committee on Socialism, Capitalism and Democracy (part of the International Political Science Association) critically analyzes the current historical conjuncture with an eye to its emergent alternatives.
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
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
