@article{Foster, author = {Foster, Roger}, title = {The Catastrophe of Neo-liberalism: Finance, Emancipation and Disintegration (2017a)}, series = {Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 43, No. 2 (2017), pp. 123-143. [doi.org/10.1177/0191453716651666]}, journal = {Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 43, No. 2 (2017), pp. 123-143. [doi.org/10.1177/0191453716651666]}, abstract = {My article provides a systematic interpretation of the transformation of capitalist society in the neo-liberal era as a form of what Karl Polanyi called 'cultural catastrophe'. I substantiate this claim by drawing upon Erich Fromm's theory of social character. Fromm's notion of social character, I argue, offers a plausible, psychodynamic explanation of the processes of social change and the eventual class composition of neo-liberal society. I argue, further, that Fromm allows us to understand the psychosocial basis of the process that Polanyi calls cultural catastrophe. This requires an elucidation of the major social forces of financialization and emancipation which, I argue, proved to be important formative factors in the emergence of neo-liberal society. The cultural catastrophe of neo-liberalism concerns the working class, whose prevailing social character has become misaligned with the new expectations and requirements of neo-liberal society.}, language = {en} } @article{Foster, author = {Foster, Roger}, title = {Erich Fromm and the Prospects for Renewing Critical Theory in the Neoliberal Era}, series = {K. Durkin and J. Braune (Eds.), Erich Fromm's Critical Theory. Hope, Humanism, and the Future, New York (Bloomsbury) 2020, pp. 75-95.}, journal = {K. Durkin and J. Braune (Eds.), Erich Fromm's Critical Theory. Hope, Humanism, and the Future, New York (Bloomsbury) 2020, pp. 75-95.}, language = {en} }