SocietyNow is a topical series of short, readable and accessible books, written by leading experts, on the events, phenomena and issues that define our 21st century world. Publishing quickly to provide a rapid response to a fast-changing world, the series covers political and economic events, and social and cultural trends, building to an authoritative collection of titles that explore and explain why our society is the way it is, now. SocietyNow makes the complexities of our world clear, drawing on the best scholarly minds to make the key issues of our times accessible to a wider audience.

Sensing a future beyond work lurking in an age of crisis, the ‘post-capitalist’ utopias of today spread the idea of a permanent escape from work aided by the automation of production, a universal basic income and the reduction of working hours to zero. By skilfully unpicking the political economy of contemporary work and its futures, this book mounts a forceful critique of the post-work society vision. 
Dinerstein and Pitts reveal that transitional measures towards a world beyond work do not do enough to break away from the key features of capitalist society, and instead potentially stifle the capacity for transformative social change. Proposing an innovative alternative, the authors envision the construction of ‘concrete utopias’ that shape and anticipate non-capitalist futures.