Mike McCarthy
University of California Santa Cruz Prof. Director of Community Studies. Author: The Master’s Tools (Verso) + Dismantling Solidarity (Cornell). Likes: economic democracy, critical social theory, 2x2 tables.
- I will be at UC Berkeley later this moth to give a public talk: "Financial democracy or democratic finance?"
- Shocking to see an editorial board with a political axe to grind completely destroy the scientific credibility of a journal in the name of...science! Theory & Society further sinks itself into the bog of bitter sociology in this latest one, an argument for the need to end academic freedom.
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- I think we need to come to terms with the fact that many people have been so deeply interpellated by Trumpism that they genuinely want blood. It’s not masking some other hidden motivation, that is the motivation.
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- I started a substack and am calling it, Theory Decay. This is my first (and possibly last) post. Link below:
- This piece at @lrb.co.uk by Amia Srinivasan is excellent. It speaks directly to the ways that the unconscious -- related to identity, desire, and fantasy -- relate to politics and therefore organizing. Organizers intuitively know these things, rational actor models less so.
- Interesting article on the sociological approach to freedom at @sociologicaltheory.bsky.social
- I began to wonder if the whole "black people took all our jobs" anti-woke moment had finally passed, as it doesn't characterize any data I have seen or the conversations I hear people having irl. But I decided to go back to twitter, and I see it is very much so still alive with the media class.
- Reposted by Mike McCarthyIn this special issue, Hammer & Hope commissioned the photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson to show us the Trump administration's arrest and deportation campaign. hammerandhope.org/article/ice-...
- This is a really wonderful paper by Muriam Haleh Davis, laying out the key debates of the Algerian left that Fanon's work was central too. We could use more lively debates like this today, especially in the US.
- Perception versus reality...social science differentiates between the two.
- I feel bad for folks that went to grad school thinking they were learning truths to defend for the rest of their intellectual lives…because that is truly boring.
- Teaching a grad seminar on class, race, and ideology at UC Santa Cruz this winter. It is the first in a series on "articulations," with another on class, the state, and gender bouncing around in the back of my head unrealized. Any thoughts welcome, it's not finalized just yet...
- The American left desperately needs an open-access social theory journal where big ideas about capitalism, politics, history, and social change can be developed and debated. We have wonderful magazines, but but very little for deeper form public-facing theoretical work...
- Trump is doing what Allende never could, arming his base.
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- The ancient Greeks had a machine for democracy, the kleroterion, today democracies are dominated by the tech of financial markets. My conversation about capitalism, class analysis, and democratic theory - first published in the Swedish magazine Röda Rummet, now in English at @versobooks.bsky.social
- Interesting arguments Durand wrt the neo-feudalism debate www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/w...
- Congratulations to Dr. James Sirigotis, who defended his dissertation Resilient Optionality: (Infra)structures of Climate, Feeling, and Finance at UC Santa Cruz. Sirigotis offers a comprehensive account of how capitalism now mirrors the logic of financial options, a truly brilliant work.
- I only met Asad Haider at a conference once, somewhat briefly. But seeing the devastation of my colleagues and comrades here at UC Santa Cruz, who knew him deeply, is an undeniable demonstration of his political and personal character and the impact he had on his friends.
- There is a massive need for an interdisciplinary English-language journal for critical social theory that unpaywalled, non-dogmatic, and explicitly takes a neither woke nor anti-woke editorial line.
- Liberalism in theory is all about individual rights and civil liberties. But why is actually-existing liberalism so often statist and deeply distrustful of the demos? Has anyone adequately explained this gap between theory and practice?
- Revisiting this excellent review of the new literature on old financial markets. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a longer view.
