Assessing the political dimensions of Anthony Giddens' work from the 1970s to the present, this book highlights new directions for politics distinct from his Third Way. Kolarz provides an assessment of Giddens' political relevance and utility for present-day political endeavours, reflecting on the approach to critical social theory found in his early work, notably his theory of structuration and critique of historical materialism, and his consequent utopian realist analysis of late modernity. Giddens and Politics beyond the Third Way extracts from his work a rationale for global redistributive action, as well as an integrative approach to policymaking, suggesting that coherence of centre-left emancipatory politics requires coordination of policy areas previously thought of as separate.

Peter Kolarz is Policy Research Consultant at Technopolis Group, UK. He studied for his PhD at the University of Sussex, UK and subsequently worked as a lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, UK.

Introduction. Anthony Giddens: Social Theory and Politics
Part I: Utopian Realism: A Political Reading of the Early Giddens
1. Critical Foundations: Structuration and System Transformation
2. Utopian Realism: Late Modernity Revisited
Part II: The Countours of a Giddensian Politics
3. The Political Consequences of Late Modernity
4. Globalization and Capitalism
Part III: The Third Way and Beyond: Critique and Reconstruction
5. The Third Way: A Utopian Realist Critique
6. Conclusion: Integrated Policymaking and the Transformation of Capitalism