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

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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. 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. Whether through intentional design or unintentional evolution, these determine the conditions of human behaviour as well as any potential for resistance, transformation and change. In engaging and accessible prose, Gilbert and Williams provide an astute political analysis of our current conjuncture. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here.

Deleuze’s concept of multiplicity allows the authors to conceptualise interests not as fixed and stable but as virtual, that may or may not actualize and become concrete. Grounded in rich theorizing and a strong commitment to historical specificity, they pull post-Marxism back from the brink by taking up the under-theorized concept of material interests. Instead, it is still left mostly to the national political party to be the main protagonist of change. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. 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.

They claim that consent to the neoliberal project was secured by persuading populations to accept private empowerment as consumers as a substitute for the weakening of social democracy. They argue that platform capitalism poses major challenges for progressive politics, but may also offer opportunities for collective organisation. They trace the securing of neoliberal hegemony and strategic position of influence by big tech and financial capital.

While Gilbert and Williams discuss the creation of new coalitions and alliances in response to the slow death of neoliberalism, there are some surprising omissions. Among many scholars of neoliberalism in particular, hegemony has been seen as too simplistic a framework for analysis, relying on Marxist politico-economic factors and top-down domination. Gramsci argues that while this interval exists, morbid symptoms will persist as ‘the old is dying and the new cannot be born’ (Gramsci, 1971: 276). They suggest a viral campaign or mass global boycott, although they don’t see this happening any time soon. Gilbert and Williams offer practical and hopeful strategies for changing the "directions of travel" of the contemporary conjuncture - especially in the U.Their contention is that politics is precisely about the contestation and negotiation of interests, something that has been implicitly denied and occluded by much contemporary public discourse. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. This is his description of an ‘interregnum’, the gap between powers, or crisis of authority, that occurs when belief in the status quo has been shaken and doesn’t quite hold in the way it did. 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. They expand the concept of interests away from the narrow definition associated with deterministic forms of Marxism, to look at how the interests of Silicon Valley and financial capital have been served, but also how workers might have been persuaded to vote for outcomes which are against their own interests, such as Brexit.

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. Part three looks towards the future and the potential ‘war of position’ that could be waged in the name of a reinvented neo-socialism based on a Green New Deal. Symbolised by the shock of Trump’s victory in the US and the Brexit vote in the UK, politics has seemed somewhat incomprehensible. In part two, the authors analyse how this state of hegemony of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ has been enabled and reproduced itself.This is a book that crosses the divide between political economy and cultural studies, but it is a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of the apparent chaos of contemporary life and the possibilities for a better future. While the 15M movement gets a small mention, the book is written as if Occupy, and in the UK, the student movement of 2011, never happened. A really useful work using the concept of hegemony as theorised by Gramsci and others to analyse the current state of society and politics in (primarily) the UK and US and set out a future strategy for the left, broadly conceived. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.