Suchergebnisse

Wolin reviews 'The Situationist City' by Simon Sadler and 'Guy Debord' by Anselm Jappe, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith and with a foreword by T. J. Clark.

Abstract
We document that children growing up in places left behind by today's economy experience lower levels of social mobility as adults. Using a longitudinal database that tracks over 20,000 places in the USA from 1980 to 2018, we identify two kinds of left behind places: the 'long-term left behind' that have struggled over long periods of history; and 'recently left-behind' places where conditions have deteriorated. Compared to children of similar baseline household income levels, we find that exposure to left behind places is associated with a 4-percentile reduction in adult income rank. Children fare considerably better when exposed to places where conditions are improving. These outcomes vary across prominent social and spatial categories and are compounded when nearby places are also experiencing hardship. Based on these findings, we argue that left behind places are having 'scarring effects' on children that could manifest long into the future, exacerbating the intergenerational challenges faced by low-income households and communities. Improvements in local economic conditions and outmigration to more prosperous places are, therefore, unlikely to be full remedies for the problems created by left behind places.

An abridged version of a longer article originally written in July 1977. Examined is the hypothesis of the Left parties winning the French elections of Mar 1978. The organizational & ideological structures of both the Communist & Socialist parties are analyzed. The best that can be expected from a Left victory is seen to be a possible repoliticization of French society. Despite recent talk of streamlining, the French Left has not come to terms with its unchanged internal structure-hence its lingering bureaucratic & statist outlook whose emancipatory thrust has been exposed as totally fraudulent. Modified HA.