Germany's Hidden Crisis

An insightful account of the crises threatening German stability. * Morning Star * Nachtwey's book addresses a glaring absence in contemporary political and academic debate, takes up urgent questions and puts forward compelling arguments. In this sense, the book was long overdue, and represents a real advance in understanding the trajectory of social inequality in modern Germany. -- Marcel van der Linden Nachtwey makes the convincing argument that the downwardly mobile society is not without alternative, but rather has been vehemently criticized and opposed from the outset by substantial layers of society. For this and other reasons, it ought to be read by anyone who feels like they no longer understand modern society. -- Wolfgang Streeck It would be difficult to find a comparatively accessible, precisely formulated and cogent explanation of the crisis on the German book market today. -- Jens Bisky * Sddeutsche Zeitung * Critical theory has rarely been more illuminating. -- Eva Thne * Literatur Spiegel * The book poses the question of class in a surprising and intelligent way. A well-founded explanation of the present. -- Urs Hafner * Neue Zrcher Zeitung * Rarely has such a precisely argued, elegantly formulated and resolutely steadfast piece of academic writing on the complex topic of social structure analysis appeared in the German-speaking world. -- Christian Baron * konkret * The newest Frankfurt School: Nachtwey investigates how capitalism's liberalization over the last forty years has transformed our lives. Oliver Nachtwey may not have an answer, but he asks the right questions. -- Joachim Gaertner * hr fernsehen * In this comprehensive sociological study, the author assembles sobering news from Germany, a country the elites of which routinely pride themselves of presiding over a stable, prosperous, and socially inclusive society. To which there is even some truth, comparatively speaking. Yet capitalism thrives on credible promises and on hopes being redeemed. As elsewhere in the West, German elites are increasingly distrusted and hopes frustrated, giving rise to virulent fears and anxieties. As private and public debt, near-stagnation and growing inequality shape gloomy perceptions, a disjunction occurs between ongoing technical and economic modernization, on the one hand, and the notion of "progress" that used to be associated with it. This is a condition for which Nachtwey coins the term "regressive modernity". Among its characteristics are a decline of collective action and public goods production and the "de-institutionalization" of social and economic conflict. Instead of anything resembling organized class struggle, we see symptoms of diffuse and "anomic" rebelliousness ranging from short-lived "occupy"-style mobilizations to the outbursts of rightist mobs. Nachtwey has written a lucid analysis highlighting the social causes of our current perplexities. -- Claus Offe It needs at once sociological imagination, an interpretive sense for statistics and explanatory sharpness to be able to decipher the anxious and conflict-laden atmosphere in a country that looks extremely well-ordered, affluent and healthy from the outside. Oliver Nachtwey, impressively combining these three talents, has managed to prompt such a necessary change of perspective with regard to contemporary Germany: In his fascinating study he not only informs us about how downward mobility, precariousness and polarization have grown over the last decades in Germany, but also about how people suffering from these developments fight against the downgrading of their lives - be it by inventing new forms of protest, be it by joining nationalist movements. A must to read for everyone interested in the dark side of the economic wealth of Western countries. -- Axel Honneth A true masterpiece. Focusing on the case of Germany - which has long been mispresented and misperceived as a paragon of econo

Oliver Nachtwey is Associate Professor of Social Structure Analysis at the University of Basel, and a fellow at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. His research interests include labour and industrial sociology, political sociology, the comparative study of capitalism, and social movements.