In Theoretical Times, Steve Redhead describes the post-crash economic, environmental, political and cultural condition we live in today. As the rise of the international right - Donald Trump, Brexit, Marine Le Pen - swarms the globe, a new global battle within the right is developing: the globalists and neo-liberals versus the economic nationalists and protectionists. What then are the prospects for a resurrected theoretical politics of the left?
Theoretical Times considers the work of theorists such as Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio, in this innovative reinvention of theory and the politics of theory. After the global financial crash the world is being hollowed out and we find ourselves in what Žižek calls a desperate state of hopelessness, the “new dark ages”. Accelerated culture sees us digitally entertaining ourselves to death but leaves us exhausted and frightened waiting for World War Three. Theoretical Times offers new theoretical resources as a way out of the quicksand.

Author Steve Redhead (cultural studies, Flinders University, Australia) writes the “Theoretical Times” blog. This book is based on the blog and on the author’s podcasts and video vodcasts. Redhead explores the ideas of theorists including Paul Virilio, Jean Baudrillard, and Alain Badiou in light of the rise of the far-right and neoliberalism around the world. One chapter is devoted to the rise of Donald Trump. Combining ideas and frameworks from high theory, realism, popular culture, and global politics, Redhead seeks to counter the anti-intellectual and populist strains of today in new media and social media. He argues that we need a new politics of theory. -- Annotation ©2018 * (protoview.com) *

Steve Redhead is Professor of Cultural Studies at Flinders University, Australia. He is also Adjunct Professor of Cultural Studies, York University, Canada. He has published seventeen books including Football and Accelerated Culture: This Modern Sporting Life, We Have Never Been Postmodern: Theory at the Speed of Light, The Jean Baudrillard Reader, The Paul Virilio Reader and Paul Virilio: Theorist For An Accelerated Culture.