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A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness: first recognized together in mid-nineteenth-century Europe, these are the focus of the Social Question. In 1942 William Beveridge called them the "giant evils" while diagnosing the crises produced by the emergence of industrial society. More recently, during the final quarter of the twentieth century, the global spread of neoliberal policies enlarged these crises so much that the Social Question has made a comeback. The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century maps out the linked crises across regions and countries and identifies the renewed and intensified Social Question as a labor issue above all. The volume includes discussions from every corner of the globe, focusing on American exceptionalism, Chinese repression, Indian exclusion, South African colonialism, democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, and other phenomena. The effects of capitalism dominating the world, the impact of the scarcity of waged work, and the degree to which the dispossessed poor bear the brunt of the crisis are all evaluated in this carefully curated volume. Both thorough and thoughtful, the book serves as collective effort to revive and reposition the Social Question, reconstructing its meaning and its politics in the world today Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Contributors -- Preface: The Terrifying Convergence of the Three Worlds of the "Social Question" / Therborn, Göran -- 1. The Social Question All Over Again / Breman, Jan / Harris, Kevan / Kwan Lee, Ching / Linden, Marcel van der -- 2. The Social Question in Western Europe: Past and Present / Linden, Marcel van der -- 3. The End of American Exceptionalism: The Social Question in the United States / Block, Fred -- 4. The Social Question as the Struggle over Precarity: The Case of China / Kwan Lee, Ching -- 5. Migrants, Mobilizations, and Selective Hegemony in Mekong Asia's Special Economic Zones / Arnold, Dennis -- 6. A Mirage of Welfare: How the Social Question in India Got Aborted / Breman, Jan -- 7. The Labor Question and Dependent Capitalism: The Case of Latin America / Munck, Ronaldo -- 8. Labor and Land Struggles in a Brazilian Steel Town: The Reorganization of Capital under Neo-Extractivism / Mollona, Massimiliano -- 9. From Poverty to Informality? The Social Question in Africa in a Historical Perspective / Eckert, Andreas -- 10. The Social Question in South Africa: From Settler Colonialism to Neoliberal-Era Democracy / Scully, Ben -- 11. The Social Question in the Middle East: Past and Present / Harris, Kevan -- 12. Post-Socialist Contradictions: The Social Question in Central and Eastern Europe and the Making of the Illiberal Right / Kalb, Don -- 13. The Social Question in Russia: From De-Politicization to a Growing Sense of Exploitation / Clément, Karine -- 14. Postscript: The Social Question in Its Global Incarnation / Breman, Jan / Harris, Kevan / Kwan Lee, Ching / Linden, Marcel van der -- Index
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