Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back)

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In doing so, they are in danger of undermining their own analytic position as well as potentially slipping into a well-worn academic nostalgia for 1968 as the one true authentic protest moment. Do the authors not see that these sectors have no interest at all in a more egalitarian and democratic society? Historical subjects can therefore simultaneously have complex, contradictory and competing sets of interests which might emerge given different contexts and perceived possibilities and horizons. Also, in many cases corporations that offer renewable energy are the same corporations that profit from fossil fuels (think for example of Shell and Vattenfall).

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. These initiatives have attempted to link local electoral platforms with social movements and have been somewhat successful in challenging platform tech giants like Uber and Airbnb. Gilbert and Williams start their book with the classic quote from political theorist Antonio Gramsci which sums up the last few years scarily well. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.Hegemony Now is split into three parts, the first outlining the securing of neoliberal hegemony in the 20th century by big tech and financial capital, going back to the end of the post-war settlement and 1968 in particular as the ‘most intense phase’ of a longer conflict (13). In engaging and accessible prose, Gilbert and Williams provide an astute political analysis of our current conjuncture an important provocation for the left. Gilbert and Williams] have done a brilliant job stripping away much of the complexity that makes post and neo-Marxist language so difficult to engage with for ordinary mortals … this book repays close attention. That said, this is an interesting analysis of both theory and strategy that makes good use of theory to build a realistic understanding of what the strategies and priorities of the modern left should be.

Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. They argue that platform capitalism poses major challenges for progressive politics, but may also offer opportunities for collective organisation. Gilbert and Williams argue, however, that Gramsci’s concepts, especially if updated to accommodate the complexity of the contemporary world, are crucial for analysing power relations in the current conjuncture. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.Gilbert and Williams focus in particular, on the empowerment of people as consumers, at the same time as their disempowered as workers and citizens. Gilbert and Williams offer a detailed and methodical analysis which helps think through complexity, but also miss some key points which could add to their analysis. People ‘no longer believe what they used to’ and those able to exercise hegemony can’t do it as effectively anymore without resorting to force. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.