Socialism, Capitalism, and Alternatives: Area Studies and Global Theories

This volume—emerging from the capstone conference during the SSEES Centenary celebrations in 2015—addresses the challenge of how one might think through coherent alternatives to the entrenched conceptual categories of ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’, around which discussion of politics and society has centred for at least a century.  This task remains stubbornly difficult, even while those categories become ever less suited to describe novel and unsettling political developments across the globe. Starting from analysis of the recent history and current dynamics of ‘post-socialist’ Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, the volume confronts the global challenge we face in articulating alternatives to capitalism, socialism and threatening populist regimes.