Baltimore’s Crisis Continues with Lester Spence

The Dig

Daniel Denvir

News, Politics

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The uprising following the police killing of Freddie Gray drew national media attention to Baltimore and the abusive law enforcement agents that discipline and control those most exploited and excluded by contemporary American capitalism. As is often the case, however, the focus shifted elsewhere soon after disturbances in the street came to end. Political scientist @LesterSpence recently wrote an article about why children were freezing in Baltimore public schools: the heating didn’t work, something that can only be made sense of when viewed in the longer history of capital flight, racial and class segregation, and the rise of a service-economy carceral state jacobinmag.com/2018/01/baltimore-freezing-schools-children-racism-austerity Thanks to Verso for their support. Check out The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello versobooks.com/books/2513-the-new-spirit-of-capitalism Support this podcast with $ at patreon.com/TheDig

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our supporters on patreon.com and by Verso Books,
0:07.0	which has tons of great left-wing titles, perfect for dig listeners like you.
0:12.9	One that you might like is The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luke Bultanski and Eve Chippello,
0:19.6	a new edition translated by Gregory Elliott.
0:22.9	In this major work, sociologist Luke Boltonsky and Eve Chippello go to the heart of the changes
0:29.2	in contemporary capitalism. Via an unprecedented analysis of the latest management texts that have
0:35.9	formed the thinking of employers in their reorganization of business.
0:39.3	The authors trace the contours of a new spirit of capitalism.
0:43.3	They argue that from the middle of the 1970s onwards, capitalism abandoned the hierarchical Fordist work structure
0:51.3	and developed a new network-based form of organization that was
0:55.8	founded on employee initiative and autonomy in the workplace, a freedom that came at the cost of
1:02.9	material and psychological security. The authors connect this new spirit with the children of the
1:10.0	libertarian and romantic currents of the late 1960s,
1:14.0	as epitomized by dressed down cool capitalists like Bill Gates and Ben and Jerry,
1:20.0	arguing that they practice a more successful and subtle form of exploitation.
1:25.5	Now a classic work charting the sociological structure of neoliberalism,
1:30.4	Baltansky and Chippello show how the new spirit triumphed thanks to a remarkable recuperation
1:36.3	of the left's critique of the alienation of everyday life that simultaneously undermined their social
1:42.7	critique. In this new edition, the two authors reflect on the reception of the book
1:48.2	and the debates that it has stimulated.
1:51.0	The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luke Baltansky and Eve Chappello.
1:55.6	Out now from Jacobin magazine. My name is Daniel Denver,
	...

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