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Erik Olin Wright on last year's best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

This paper explores a broad framework for thinking sociologically about emancipatory alternatives to dominant institutions and social structures, especially capitalism. The framework is grounded in two foundational propositions: (1) Many forms of human suffering and many deficits in human flourishing are the result of existing institutions and social structures. (2) Transforming existing institutions and social structures in the right way has the potential to substantially reduce human suffering and expand the possibilities for human flourishing. An emancipatory social science responding to these propositions faces four broad tasks: specifying the moral principles for judging social institutions; using these moral principles as the standards for diagnosis and critique of existing institutions; developing an account of viable alternatives in response to the critique; and proposing a theory of transformation for realizing those alternatives. The idea of "real utopias" is one way of thinking about alternatives and transformation.

This address explores a broad framework for thinking sociologically about emancipatory alternatives to dominant institutions and social structures, especially capitalism. The framework is grounded in two foundational propositions: (1) Many forms of human suffering and many deficits in human flourishing are the result of existing institutions and social structures. (2) Transforming existing institutions and social structures in the right way has the potential to substantially reduce human suffering and expand the possibilities for human flourishing. An emancipatory social science responding to these propositions faces four broad tasks: specifying the moral principles for judging social institutions; using these moral principles as the standards for diagnosis and critique of existing institutions; developing an account of viable alternatives in response to the critique; and proposing a theory of transformation for realizing those alternatives. The idea of "real utopias" is one way of thinking about alternatives and transformation.

Der Beitrag setzt sich mit den Transformationsmöglichkeiten des Kapitalismus auseinander. Da es einen umfassenden Umriss einer radikal-demokratischen egalitären Alternative zum Kapitalismus nicht gibt, müssen wir Prinzipien einer institutionellen Innovation und eines Wechsels herausarbeiten, die uns anzeigen, ob wir uns zumindest in die richtige Richtung bewegen. Die Autoren erkunden die Möglichkeiten eines solchen Weges. Zunächst wendet sich der Beitrag der Bedeutung des Wortes "sozial" in "Sozialismus" zu. Dies ermöglicht es, einen abstrakten, idealtypischen Gegensatz zwischen drei Arten, Macht über die Wirtschaft auszuüben (Kapitalismus, Etatismus und Sozialismus) zu definieren. Auf der Grundlage dieses Gegensatzes werden dann die navigatorischen Prinzipien des sozialistischen Kompasses bestimmt und Wege zur sozialistischen Handlungsfähigkeit aufgezeigt. In diesem letzten Abschnitt erläutert der Beitrag sieben Handlungswege (etatistischer Sozialismus, sozialdemokratisch-etatistische ökonomische Regulation, assoziative Demokratie, sozialer Kapitalismus, kooperative Marktwirtschaft, soziale Ökonomie, partizipatorischer Sozialismus). (ICB2)

The author responds to comments made by Marion Fourcade, Dylan Riley, and Cihan Tugal in a symposium on his book Envisioning Real Utopias (London and New York, NY: Verso, 2010). Adapted from the source document.

A "real utopia" isn't an oxymoron or a figment of the imagination. Erik Olin Wright writes, instead, that real world examples of functioning social alternatives can help us find ways to improve the human condition. When history provides an opportunity to effect such changes, a familiarity with real utopias will provide a roadmap.

Essay in a review symposium on Margaret R. Somers' book Genealogies of Citizenship: Markets, Statelessness and the Right to Have Rights. The author explores Somers' triadic model of citizenship which differentiates three spheres of social practices -- the state, the market and civil society. Adapted from the source document.

Conventionally seen as mutually opposed, could insights from the three principal paradigms of class analysis-Marxist, Weberian and stratification theories-be combined? Erik Olin Wright offers models for an integrated approach. Adapted from the source document.