Derek Wall: Babylon and Beyond. The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements (2005)

Babylon and Beyond provides the first clear and accessible guide to the economics of anti-capitalism. Anti-capitalism is a diverse movement: critics accuse it of knowing what it is against, but not knowing what it is for. Anti-capitalists want radical change, but what shape should that change take? The truth is that different sections of the movement advocate distinct—sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory—programmes for change. This book concentrates on perhaps the most divisive issue of all in the anti-capitalist struggle: how to transform the economy. There are greens who think we must hold back economic growth and Marxists who believe the economy must move forward along capitalist lines before there can be revolutionary change; there are those who remain faithful to notions of collective or state ownership of all aspects of the economy, and those who think various kinds of reform or regulation of capitalist practice is more appropriate. Babylon and Beyond is a modern guidebook to the complicated terrain of alternatives to global capitalism. Derek Wall explains and summarises the rich variety of theories available within the anti-capitalist movement. Chapters cover Marxism, Autonomism, Anarchism, Ecosocialism, Capitalist reformers (like George Soros and Joseph Stiglitz), Green localists (like Colin Hines), and others. Unique in its coverage, clear and accessible, the book is ideal for activists, and anyone who is trying to find a useful way forward. This book is published in association with the Green Economics Institute.

Publisher Pluto Press, 2005
ISBN 074532391X, 9780745323916
232 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2014-8-28)

Daniel Miller (ed.): Materiality (2005)

“Throughout history and across social and cultural contexts, most systems of belief—whether religious or secular—have ascribed wisdom to those who see reality as that which transcends the merely material. Yet, as the studies collected here show, the immaterial is not easily separated from the material. Humans are defined, to an extraordinary degree, by their expressions of immaterial ideals through material forms. The essays in Materiality explore varied manifestations of materiality from ancient times to the present. In assessing the fundamental role of materiality in shaping humanity, they signal the need to decenter the social within social anthropology in order to make room for the material.

Considering topics as diverse as theology, technology, finance, and art, the contributors—most of whom are anthropologists—examine the many different ways in which materiality has been understood and the consequences of these differences. Their case studies show that the latest forms of financial trading instruments can be compared with the oldest ideals of ancient Egypt, that the promise of software can be compared with an age-old desire for an unmediated relationship to divinity. Whether focusing on the theology of Islamic banking, Australian Aboriginal art, derivatives trading in Japan, or textiles that respond directly to their environment, each essay adds depth and nuance to the project that Materiality advances: a profound acknowledgment and rethinking of one of the basic properties of being human.”

Contributors. Matthew Engelke, Webb Keane, Susanne Küchler, Bill Maurer, Lynn Meskell, Daniel Miller, Hirokazu Miyazaki, Fred Myers, Christopher Pinney, Michael Rowlands, Nigel Thrift

Publisher Duke University Press, 2005
Politics, History, and Culture series
ISBN 0822335425, 9780822335429
304 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2015-2-21)

Rachel P. Maines: The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria”, the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction (2001)

From the time of Hippocrates until the 1920s, massaging female patients to orgasm was a staple of medical practice among Western physicians in the treatment of “hysteria,” an ailment once considered both common and chronic in women. Doctors loathed this time-consuming procedure and for centuries relied on midwives. Later, they substituted the efficiency of mechanical devices, including the electric vibrator, invented in the 1880s. In The Technology of Orgasm, Rachel Maines offers readers a stimulating, surprising, and often humorous account of hysteria and its treatment throughout the ages, focusing on the development, use, and fall into disrepute of the vibrator as a legitimate medical device.

Publisher JHU Press, 2001
Johns Hopkins studies in the history of technology
ISBN 0801866464, 9780801866463
208 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (no OCR; updated on 2012-10-23)