Articles and Talks by Luke Martell
The Conversation, 2024
'I would describe myself as a socialist. I describe myself as a progressive'. These were Labour l... more 'I would describe myself as a socialist. I describe myself as a progressive'. These were Labour leader Keir Starmer's words in May 2024, shortly after his first speech of the election campaign. Labour's constitution defines it as a democratic socialist party. So, in theory, Starmer is a socialist.
Hard Times, 2023
By Anke Bartels and Luke Martell
Renewal blog, 2023
Pluralist Socialism after Corbyn, COVID-19, and Conservatism
The Loop, 2023
Socialist democracy includes but can go beyond the state, class, and socialism. Luke Martell argu... more Socialist democracy includes but can go beyond the state, class, and socialism. Luke Martell argues it should overcome dichotomous thinking in favour of a pluralist socialism of diverse values, approaches, democratic forms, and levels of organisation.
Transforming Society, 2023
Alternative ways of living are less an escape from society and more a method for transforming it.... more Alternative ways of living are less an escape from society and more a method for transforming it. We should learn from a global multitude of lived utopias, and scale them up to a plural, intersectional, green, decolonial, international, democratic socialism. See an updated and expanded version of this blog here: https://lawpoliticsandsociology.wordpress.com/2023/05/05/building-utopia-from-the-bottom-up/
Renewal: a journal of social democracy, 2023
Alternative ways of living do not offer an escape from contemporary society, but a model for tran... more Alternative ways of living do not offer an escape from contemporary society, but a model for transforming it. We should learn from the many global examples of locally specific lived utopias, and take seriously the challenge of scaling them up into a truly plural, intersectional, green, decolonial, international, democratic socialism.
Ideology, Theory, Practice, 2021
What values unite the alternatives to social media, surveillance, and digital capitalism? On coll... more What values unite the alternatives to social media, surveillance, and digital capitalism? On collective counter-visions for the online world.
Thinking Beyond Neoliberalism
Sociology of Globalization
This chapter discusses alternatives to current globalisation. It argues that a regulatory global ... more This chapter discusses alternatives to current globalisation. It argues that a regulatory global governance is unlikely because of conflicting material interests and ideologies. Sub-global internationalism is more viable politically; a global left rather than global government. The chapter outlines alternatives to existing globalisation at the levels of national and local government and in local civil society. It argues that alternative globalisation can be pursued at a global level in the free movement of people. This is defended on philosophical and principled grounds and in terms of its economic and social benefits. It is argued that despite widespread opposition to immigration there are bases for support for open borders. Keywords: Anti-globalisation. Alter-globalisation. Global governance. Local alternatives. Open borders. Free movement.
European Journal of Social Theory, 2021
Review of Capitalism on Edge by Albena Azmanova
Renewal, 2020
The Labour leader has so far pursued a deliberately ambiguous approach to both party management a... more The Labour leader has so far pursued a deliberately ambiguous approach to both party management and policy formation. But it would be more sustainable and electorally appealing to set out a substantive, inclusive and ambitious political platform, based
on the democratic economy and Green New Deal – policies around which the party can unite both its own factions and a majority of the country.
Labour Hub, 2020
Keir Starmer campaigned for the UK Labour Party leadership on a platform that there was no point ... more Keir Starmer campaigned for the UK Labour Party leadership on a platform that there was no point to Labour unless they could win power. Unity and an end to factionalism was, he said, key to electoral success. But Starmer also commended Jeremy Corbyn’s shifting of Labour to an anti-austerity position and said it was not the right time to steer away from the broad policy positions of the previous leader. It’s early days and a lot could change but what this has led to so far is technocratic ambiguity alongside factionalist anti-factionalism. What this means in terms of ideology and policy is unclear, deliberately so. Starmer needs to appeal across the breadth of the UK’s fractionalised diverse social structure, not to mention across his own party, but I think there are substantive and committed clear policy bases on which he can do so.
Alternate Routes, 2020
An alternative economy is being built that goes beyond globalisation and neoliberalism. It draws ... more An alternative economy is being built that goes beyond globalisation and neoliberalism. It draws on but breaks with previous paradigms and is complex, detailed and practical. It is based in pluralities, governmental and civil society, political and economic, and in its regenerative capacities can appeal across the political spectrum. It is being discussed and implemented by local governments, think tanks, academics, and national political parties. This article asks whether something localised and beyond global capital can avoid parochialism, inequality and the negative effects of competition, stretch to representing the interests of the public as a whole and work at national level. Can its embeddedness across institutions and plural actors protect it from reversal or does its shift to community power and interests and away from neoliberalism mean global capital will undermine it? The paper discusses what the new democratic economy is and how it can be implemented and maintained in the face of opposition.
Imagined Economies, Real Fictions: New Perspectives on Economic Thinking in Britain, 2020
An alternative economy is being built in the UK and beyond. It comes out of radical imagination, ... more An alternative economy is being built in the UK and beyond. It comes out of radical imagination, yet is material and real and draws on but breaks with previous paradigms. It is complex, detailed and practical, based in pluralities, governmental and civil society, political and eco- nomic, and in its regenerative capacities can appeal across the political spectrum. People are talking about it and doing it, from local govern- ments, to think tanks, academics, and national political parties, moving beyond globalisation and neoliberalism. But can something localised avoid parochialism and competition, represent the interests of the public as a whole and work nationally and beyond? Will the alternative econ- omy’s embeddedness across institutions and via plural actors protect it from reversal? Can the democratic economy survive as an imagine-and- do, not just imagining, approach?
Hard Times, 2019
Jon Southcoasting (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 65 45 55 Editorial
Norwegian British Politics Review, 2018
Social democracy broke from Marxism at the start of the 20 th century, differentiating itself ove... more Social democracy broke from Marxism at the start of the 20 th century, differentiating itself over its attitude to capitalism, class, and parliament. Capitalism was deemed not to be doomed to collapse through its own contradictions, but a robust system that could be worked with from within. Rather than the class system polarising, middle classes were emerging with different values to the industrial proletariat so that social democracy's ideology would have to appeal to them too. Parliament was not just a tool of the bourgeoisie. It could be used for social reforms that benefitted the working class within capitalism rather than something to be overthrown in a revolution to a new system.
Capital and Class, 42, 2018
This article discusses criticisms that utopia and utopianism undermine social change. It outlines... more This article discusses criticisms that utopia and utopianism undermine social change. It outlines two types of utopia, future and current. It argues against claims that utopianism is idealist and steps aside from material and conflictual dimensions of society and so undermines change, proposing that utopias are material and conflictual and contribute to change. Against liberal and pluralist criticisms that utopianism is end-ist and totalitarian and terminates diversity and change it argues that utopianism can encompass liberal and pluralist dimensions and be dynamic rather than static. It is proposed that criticisms create false conflations and dichotomies. Critical perspectives, rather than being rejected, are answered on their own terms. Utopianism, it is argued, is part of change, materially, now and in the future.
LSE Review of Books, 2018
LSE Review of Books, 2018
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Articles and Talks by Luke Martell
on the democratic economy and Green New Deal – policies around which the party can unite both its own factions and a majority of the country.
on the democratic economy and Green New Deal – policies around which the party can unite both its own factions and a majority of the country.
New Labour: Politics after Thatcherism shows how the New Labour Party has looked to the USA, Europe, Australasia and East Asia for inspiration. It outlines the path of modernization which led to the Blair revolution. Driver and Martell explain the role of big ideas such as communitarianism, globalization and stakeholding. And they provide a full introduction to and interpretation of New Labour's policies on the economy, welfare and constitutional reform.
Students and general readers will find this an accessible introduction to New Labour ideology and policy. Experts will find a new interpretation, which breaks with other perspectives on Labour under Blair.