Introduction

Abstract

The editors provide the rationale for the book’s underlying focus on the generational experience of millennials in the aftermath of the North Atlantic financial crisis. This includes a brief examination of two of its distinct yet intertwined elements: labour market trajectory and political participation. Next, the history of the edited volume is recounted, beginning with the 2014 Cambridge conference that it is based on. That conference had two guiding aims, which remain for the book: to generate constructive rather than solely critical responses to the financial crisis and to give voice to non-academics. An outline is then provided of Erik Olin Wright’s theoretical perspective on emancipatory social change, which gave the authors a shared set of concerns and themes. Finally, the chapters are summarised, and the rationale is presented for each of the three sections of the book: reclaiming universities, revitalising democracy, and recasting politics.