Class Structure and the Third Way: An Interview Record with British Scholars

Author: He Bingmeng Jiang Hui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Class is not only a political phenomenon; it is now more of a cultural phenomenon and a sense, a broader sociological category. The social structure of the UK is like a diamond, with the majority of the population constituting this structure, and "The Third Way" represents their interests. — Professor Mick Cox of the London School of Economics and Political Science
It is important to distinguish between two forms of liberalism: one derived from Smith's "neoliberalism," and the other from Mill's "new liberalism." I believe "The Third Way" shares significant similarities with the latter, though the latter is closer to socialism than New Labour. — Professor Christopher Pierson of the University of Nottingham
Institutions and fields such as education, culture, arts, publishing, journalism, and others, in my opinion, should not be dominated by direct market forces. The most pressing issue now is to find a way to prevent productive enterprises and companies in the market economy from being overly directly controlled by financial markets and capital owners. — Professor Russell Keat of the University of Edinburgh
This book, presented to the readers, is a record of dialogues between the author and British scholars during his academic visit to the UK. From October 12 to 26, 2004, the author conducted a two-week academic visit to the UK. With the coordination and assistance of the British Academy, the author visited six renowned universities in the UK: the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Kent, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Nottingham, and the Queen's University of Belfast, engaging in in-depth discussions with over ten distinguished British scholars. The author also visited the Marx Memorial Library in London and witnessed the Third European Social Forum held in the city. Although the two weeks were brief, the academic information and inspiration gained exceeded expectations. To comprehensively preserve the outcomes of this academic visit, we carefully edited this collection and hope it will provide some reference for domestic researchers.
The book primarily consists of six dialogue transcripts, which were compiled based on the audio recordings. For clarity, we added titles to each transcript according to the discussion topics. Within each transcript, we also rearranged the content to group discussions on the same issues together. Although these six transcripts constitute one-third of the book in terms of word count, they are the central focus of the entire work. At the end of each transcript, we included translations of the scholars' relevant works provided either in person or later via email, which help us gain a deeper and broader understanding of the discussed issues and the academic backgrounds of the scholars.
The book also includes dialogues from our visit to the Marx Memorial Library in London, along with some materials and articles provided by the library, as well as observations from the Third European Social Forum in London. Finally, for the convenience of research, the book also includes introductory materials on the historical evolution of the British Labour Party, Conservative Party, and Liberal Democratic Party.