Economic Science Fictions

Necessary in its time, the slogan 'Another World Is Possible' was always vulnerable to the riposte: 'Yeah, well what kind of world?' This unique volume of what might be called social-science fiction demonstrates that the left is now capable of imagining what world or worlds might replace the dying universe of liberal capitalism. It's a rare pleasure to be able to say of a collection of essays by left-wing scholars that it's exciting—but this one is.

Benjamin Kunkel, author of Indecision and Utopia or Bust

Science fiction has long been an arena for contending economic ideas, orthodox and otherwise. In this book's fascinating reflections, the attention is repaid with interest as the lenses of economics and critical theory are turned on science fiction's economic visions, dreams and nightmares.

Ken MacLeod, author of the Fall Revolution and Engines of Light series and the Corporation Wars trilogy

Economic Science Fictions is an immensely valuable intervention into the critical debates around science fiction, politics and economics; a consistently stimulating and surprising collection of essays that not only demonstrates how useful it is to think of the genre from an economically informed perspective but also persuasively argues that economists ought to be paying attention to the speculative possibilities of the best science fiction. Every essay here is good, and from each one I learned things and found ways to rethink what I thought I already knew. A groundbreaking collection, very highly recommended.

Adam Roberts, Professor of nineteenth-century Literature, Royal Holloway, University of London

What Davies and his contributors ultimately carve out is a space of hope. Nothing is inevitable, and the ending to our story remains to be written.

Hua Hsu, New Yorker

Economic Science Fictions offers us Ha-Joon Chang, Owen Hatherley, and Tim Jackson, with editor Will Davis, whose exceptionally lucid introductory essay is worth the price of entry alone, acting as a guide.

Carl Neville, Quietus

The primary value of Economic Science Fictions consists in its appeal for a mode of radicalism that combines imagination and rigour. Any realisable new economics, like the best sci-fi, must both extend the imagination and be constructed according to a robust internal logic. As Davies asks: 'Where is the Bauhaus for economic reform? Where is the futurist manifesto for a different form of money or property?' This collection captures something of the energy of those early 20th-century manifestos, offering windows onto new horizons that excite because they seem within our reach.

Justin Reynolds, New Socialist

What Davies and his contributors ultimately carve out is a space of hope. Nothing is inevitable, and the ending to our story remains to be written.

Hua Hsu

New Yorker

Economic Science Fictions offers us Ha-Joon Chang, Owen Hatherley, and Tim Jackson, with editor Will Davis, whose exceptionally lucid introductory essay is worth the price of entry alone, acting as a guide.

Carl Neville

Quietus

The primary value of Economic Science Fictions consists in its appeal for a mode of radicalism that combines imagination and rigour. Any realisable new economics, like the best sci-fi, must both extend the imagination and be constructed according to a robust internal logic. As Davies asks: 'Where is the Bauhaus for economic reform? Where is the futurist manifesto for a different form of money or property?' This collection captures something of the energy of those early 20th-century manifestos, offering windows onto new horizons that excite because they seem within our reach.

Justin Reynolds

New Socialist

Economic Science Fictions is a lively and deeply strange collection that tries to answer this question by reading science fiction as economic theory, and vice versa. After all, they're both premised on speculation.

New Yorker