Parecon Reading List

For historical antecedents see particularly the work of Pannekoek, Cardan, Rocker, Kropotkin.

Remembering Tomorrow

From SDS to Life After Capitalism 
Michael Albert, Seven Stories
A memoir from the Sixties to 2005, including accounts of the conceptualization and advocacy of parecon.

Realizing Hope

Life Beyond Capitalism
Michael Albert, Zed Books
A look at society as a whole in pareconish terms, economy, but also kinship, culture, polity, ecology, and much more.

Parecon

Life After Capitalism
Michael Albert, Verso Books
The whole book is online here
The most resent and most complete presentation of the Participatory Economic vision including discussion of all manner of concerns and issues about it, descriptions of it, etc.

Moving Forward

Program for a Participatory Economy
Michael Albert, AK Press
The whole book is online here
Albert lays out the vision and strategy for his revolutionary “participatory economy” idea. He argues that we have to change how we conceive of work and wages, rewarding effort and sacrifice rather than output, and restructuring work so that everyone can become involved in controlling their workplaces. From here he moves to a proposal for how we might organize the larger functions of the economy in workers’ councils and a general discussion of how our society might look with a participatory economy, and, uniquely in this volume, program for getting there.

Thinking Forward

Michael Albert, Arbeiter Ring
The whole book is online here 
Working through the thought associated with developing economic vision, using parecon as the substance.

Looking Forward

Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century 
Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, South End
The whole book is online here
How work can be organized efficiently and productively without hierarchy; how consumption could be fulfilling and also equitable; and how participatory is planning could promote solidarity and foster self-management.
This book is online, on ZNet.

The Political Economy of Participatory Economics

Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, Princeton University
The whole book is online here
A more technical presentation of Parecon.
This book is online, on ZNet. 

Socialist Visions

Stephen R. Shalom, Editor, South End
What could a socialist America be like? This provocative collection of original essays initiates a dialogue on one of the most essential yet neglected questions facing the Left.

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