Erik Olin Wright

[¿Que?]

Has anyone ever heard of him. I think he's rather obscure outside of sociology. I'd never heard of him until I took a class on inequality. So I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get many responses. It seems he used to be a pretty serious Marxist, but has recently turned towards reformism. his website is chock full of material. Does anyone recommend anything of his in particular? I am particularly interested in the reform vs. revolution (perhaps false) dichotomy, and my teacher recommended him for this topic. Again, I realize he is kinda obscure, so I don't expect many responses, but what the hell, think I'll try anyway...

Here is his website.
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/
Keep in mind I have a library account, so I can access online journals as well.

Thanks,
agustin

[KC]

He has been a reformist for quite some time. I saw him speak years ago and he was chiding the focus on revolution for a "more pragmatic approach". He's basically a Bernsteinian reformist. I can't say if any of his writings are of any value but after hearing him speak I was pretty disgusted.

[syndicat]

In the academic world he's a well known Marxist sociologist.

He wrote a recent book which is quite interesting called "Envisioning Real Utopias". It's available at his website:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ERU.htm

He's sceptical of what he calls a "rupture" or what would more usually be called a revolution. He does allow that a "rupture" could take place as part of a larger political process. His evaluations of various scenarios completely leaves out the scenario of workers seizing the means of production for example. On the other hand, he does have a critique of social democracy.