About this item
Highlights
- The gap between personal and formal politics has been widening globally and locally.
- About the Author: Peter Beresford OBE is Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national disabled people's organisation.
- 256 Pages
- Social Science,
Description
Book Synopsis
The gap between personal and formal politics has been widening globally and locally. As personal politics have become more inclusive and egalitarian inspired by new social movements, neoliberal ideologies have undermined democracy, increasing isolation, inequality, poverty, disease and environmental threat. Yet this paradox may also offer a path to transformation.
Using international evidence and examples, The Antidote explores what we can learn from the equalisation of personal roles and relationships that's been taking place, to help us reconnect with ourselves and each other and make possible more participatory and liberatory policy and politics. It sets out the barriers we face and offers a route map to bring an end to the destructive effects of unfettered neoliberal ideology, economics, policy and politics.
Review Quotes
"Bravo! This book explains how personal politics and new social movements forge human connections that can be harnessed to transform society and shape a future beyond neoliberalism." Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
"Charts a journey from destruction to renewal and alienation to inclusion. Invoking the spirit of others who have given us hope in the power to overcome, Beresford once again gives us an important book for our times." Sarah Carr, survivor researcher and service user involvement champion
"In an uncertain world where political polarisation and raging inequality run like faultlines, The Antidote is a pressing and profoundly urgent book." Mary O'Hara, journalist and author of Austerity Bites
"Just at a time when many are so near to despair at the sight of a rising far right, racist populism and the corporate capture of governments, Peter Beresford wonderfully gives us a comprehensive vision of how a new politics can be created to secure humanitarian solidarity and environmentally sustainable change." Rt Hon John McDonnell MP
"Wholly original and timely, and steeped in the current moment, this is a book to savour slowly and to remain in frequent dialogue with." Peter Barham, psychologist, historian and author
"Beresford provides a comprehensive and thought-provoking analysis of the consequences of neoliberalism and offers a guide to how we can challenge its damaging social consequences." Lee Gregory, University of Nottingham
"Peter Beresford brilliantly explains why we don't, won't and can't stop the power of the people." Danny Dorling, University of Oxford
"An accessible, masterful and critical analysis of the barriers to change and a meaningful doable strategy for their removal ... essential reading for students, researchers and anyone involved in the struggle for a fairer and just global society." Colin Barnes, University of Leeds
About the Author
Peter Beresford OBE is Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national disabled people's organisation. He has long term lived experience of welfare benefits and mental health services, and is also Emeritus Professor at Brunel University London and the University of Essex, and Honorary Professor at Edge Hill University.
He is a long-standing advocate of participation and empowerment as an activist, educator, researcher and writer. He has published over 30 books, and many chapters and journal articles, writing regularly for The Guardian and other mainstream and online media.