K. But what makes Hegemony Now uniquely impressive is how seamlessly their politics emerges from their sophisticated analysis of the conditions and actualities of the present. The book partly delivers on this promise, but i had problems to keep the focus due to the many thematic detours.

Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. If we understand hegemony to mean more than pure domination but rather the production and maintenance of a strategic position of influence, the sectors that have ‘won’ this position, through a number of mechanisms, including culture and infrastructure, are those of technology and financial capital. Gilbert and Williams focus in particular, on the empowerment of people as consumers, at the same time as their disempowered as workers and citizens. In particular, the lack of some of the key protest movements and platforms for change that have occurred since the 2008 financial crash.This is much needed, particularly at a time when the appeal of simplified narratives is highly potent. This includes a detailed and methodical analysis using Gramsci’s tools to examine the mechanisms through which hegemony has been perpetuated. Gramsci’s well-known formula is that hegemony is maintained by a combination of coercion and consent, with consent being sought through the construction of ‘common sense’: a worldview that is produced to align itself with the hegemonic groups’ interests, and presented as ‘natural’. Gilbert and Williams offer practical and hopeful strategies for changing the ‘directions of travel’ of the contemporary conjuncture—especially in the US and UK. They also successfully expand the term platform to include other forms of infrastructure: the global financial system, the energy system, production systems, global governance institutions, education, media and nation level state bureaucracies.

Through upgrading the concept of hegemony – understanding the importance of passive consent; the complexity of political interests; and the structural force of technology – Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams offer us an updated theory of power for the twenty-first century. I understand where they are coming from, but I do wonder whether in practice the end result would be limited reforms that are eventually dissipated by a Thermidorian revanche of capitalist interest, rather than creating a gathering wave of progressive change that Gilbert and Williams imagine.Another is debt, which works to reduce the horizon of possibilities that individual subjects can imagine as realisable. But what makes Hegemony Now uniquely impressive is how seamlessly their politics emerges from their sophisticated analysis of the conditions and actualities of the present.

Through upgrading the concept of hegemony-understanding the importance of passive consent; the complexity of political interests; and the structural force of technology-Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams offer us an updated theory of power for the twenty-first century.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. In the process of clarifying and updating the often misunderstood (and occasionally maligned) concept of hegemony, Gilbert and Williams also provide us with a valuable analysis of the ‘long 1990s’: an account of its constitution, a diagnosis of its crisis and a map for its overcoming. It is a book that wants to much: Updating recent post-marxist and post-structuralist theory, recounting the history of the UK-left, the Labour party and some US campaigns, analysing real-existing neoliberalism and delivering an organisational strategy for the left. However, they recognise that this will require major international, intra-governmental coordination and high levels of participation by platform users.