WTF did we talk about?
Like most, we were pretty engrossed in the GameStop story, as you can see from this week’s recommended reading. In particular, we were interested in the abstraction of financial markets and who controls them. This in turn led to a discussion about the changing significance of class and power in relation to employment and the blurring boundaries between labour and leisure. We looked at some historic examples of this (such as the Quaker-founded Bournville worker’s village in Birmingham and Disney’s Celebration town in Florida) and how this compared to modern lifestyle companies pushing employees and consumers alike to buy into ideas rather than just products.
There were some really great recommendations for further reading on these topics. So for anyone who missed out, see the the full list below.
WTF are people reading?
Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 1964
David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, 2018 – setting the record for longest standing recommendation in the footnotes!
Stuart Hall, ‘Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Popular”, People’s history and socialist theory, 1981, pp. 227–240
WTF is next?
Our final WTF is Going On? session for the spring will take place March 9th, but we still have three more Postcapitalist Desire events and an exciting call for papers for a special Alluvium Editorial – check out our schedule! In the meantime, you can join the conversation on Discord.