Since its emergence at the end of the seventeenth century, industrial capitalism as a specific form of social organisation has set recurrent challenges to its own persistence, and until today, it has proved to be successful to develop new ways of accumulation based on its capacity of adaptation. Is this process of transition now accelerating or reaching an end point? This book is a critical exploration of capitalism in transition, bringing together cutting edge, world renowned scholars who reflect from different disciplinary points of view. This collection engages with the primarily Western themes of welfare capitalism and social fragmentation. Structured over three parts, the book analyses; the transformations of welfare societies and capitalism with a focus on South European welfare states and their (in)capacity to tackle poverty; the transformation of work and migration with a special attention to informality and the question of social rights; and the transformation of cities.

This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1, No poverty.

Reviews

'Two aspects constitute the value added by this book. First, it defines a framework for addressing issues related to Western capitalism throughout the various sections. Secondly, and strictly related to the issues being faced, innovative and inclusive initiatives to overcome the pessimistic vision are discussed in this book. [...] Progressive social movements, new political parties and traditional social democratic parties are being challenged to reinvent social contracts.'
Federico Camerin, Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Vol. 13, No. 2, November 2019

Framing the issues at stake
1 Western capitalism in transition: global processes, local challenges - Alberta Andreotti, David Benassi, Yuri Kazepov
2 A child of its times: the "new urban sociology" in context and its legacy - Michael Harloe

Part I: The transformations of global capitalism
3 Abstract from the concrete: capitalism spiralling out of control - David Harvey
4 Rethinking social reproduction in an era of the dominance of finance capital - Gavin Smith
5 On the social (dis)embedding of the economy in a local context: where anthropology and sociology share metaphors as analytical tools - Simone Ghezzi

Part II: Welfare capitalism and rights
6 The underclass and international comparison, variety and universalism - Jean-Claude Barbier
7 Welfare migration and civic stratification: Britain's emergent rights regime - Lydia Morris
8 The Mediterranean welfare states between recalibration and change in the cultural paradigm - Nicola Negri and Chiara Saraceno

Part III: Citizenship and migration
9 Deconstructing labour demand: implications for low wage employment - Saskia Sassen
10 International migrations and the Mediterranean - Enrico Pugliese
11 Cities under economic austerity: the return of citizenship claims - Marisol García

Part IV: Cities and urban transformations
12 The sense of touch - Richard Sennett
13 Urban disorder and the transformation of global governance - Sophie Body-Gendrot
14 Urban political economy beyond convergence: robust but differentiated unequal European cities - Patrick Le Galès

Part V: Segregation and the spatial dimension of poverty
15 The spatial dimension of poverty - Susan S. Fainstein and Norman Fainstein
16 Urban segregation, inequalities and local welfare: the challenges of neoliberalisation - Marco Oberti and Edmond Préteceille
17 Urban poverty and social cohesion: lessons from Naples - Enrica Morlicchio

Perspectives on the future of western capitalism
18 The double movement and the perspectives of contemporary capitalism - Enzo Mingione

Index

Editors

Alberta Andreotti is Associate Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca

David Benassi is Associate Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca

Yuri Kazepov is Professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Vienna