Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work - Softcover

"Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams' project dares to propose a different way of thinking and acting. Given the fizzling of the Occupy moment, a radical rethinking of the anarchic approach is badly needed but just not happening. This book could do a lot of work in getting that rethink going." - Doug Henwood, author of Wall Street "A powerful book: it not only shows us how the postcapitalist world of rapidly improving technology could make us free, but it also shows us how we can organise to get there. This is a must-read." - Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future "Srnicek and Williams demonstrate how a sustainable economic future is less a question of means than of imagination. The postcapitalist world they envision is utterly attainable, if we can remember that we have been inventing the economy all along." - Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now "Inventing the Future is exactly what we need right now. With immense patience and care, it sets out a clear and compelling vision of a postcapitalist society. Equally importantly, it lays out a plausible programme which can take us from 24/7 capitalist immiseration to a world free of work." - Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? "A conceptual launch pad for a new socialist imagination..." - Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums "Most important book of 2015" - Aaron Bastani, co-founder of Novara Media "A fascinating book about an alternative to austerity: can't wait to read it." - Owen Jones "Neoliberalism and austerity seem to reign supreme - the idea of a society not run for profit seems impossible. Or does it? The fascinating Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams argues for a radical transformation of society." Owen Jones, New Statesman books of the year 2015 "A future free from work might seem unrealistic, but it is actually the elephant in the room that Cameron et al. would rather you ignored. Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams' fabulous study Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso) opened my eyes to the role technology might play in making society possible again." - Peter Fleming, author of the Mythology of Work (Pluto), Times Higher Education Supplement "Inventing the Future is unapologetically a manifesto, and a much-overdue clarion call to a seriously disorganized metropolitan left to get its shit together, to start thinking - and arguing - seriously about what is to be done...It is hard to deny the persuasiveness with which the book puts forward the positive contents of a new and vigorous populism; in demanding full automation and universal basic income from the world system, they also demand the return of utopian thinking and serious organization from the left." LA Review of Books "Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, offers an ambitious, thoughtfully creative and meticulously researched blueprint for a new strategy toward building a mass global movement to counter the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism...Srnicek and Williams offer a profoundly thoughtful, meticulously analyzed contribution to this body of work. Most importantly, they offer a glimmer of hope that the future is something that might still be invented by us, not imposed from above." - PopMatters "Inventing the Future is both accessible and original" - Nicholas Korody, Architect "In Inventing the Future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams take on the two key questions of the left, if I can characterise them broadly: why are we so bad at saying stuff, and do we have anything to say? Their diagnoses of the shortcomings of what they call 'folk politics,' are perceptive, clear, brutal, but respectful. Their prescription for the future can seem vertiginously sudden-you'll need to either get on board with a basic citizen's income, or form a better refutation than 'it sounds expensive,' and fast. But critically, they identify our urgent task: to own modernity." - Zoe Williams, Guardian

Despite the profound crisis of capitalism and the mass mobilizations of people around the world in response, there has been no successful contestation of neoliberalism's hegemony. Inventing the Future is a major new manifesto that argues for a novel set of alternatives for the future - alternatives which seek to rekindle a popular modernity. Against the confused understanding of the hi-tech and neoliberal world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future the authors envisage a post-capitalist economy which is capable of advancing living standards, liberating humanity from work, and developing technologies which free us from biological and environmental constraints.