
Financial Psychedelia and the Commons
Andrea Fumagalli(Author)
Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 23. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
184 pages
978-1-350-41384-9 (ISBN)
Description
This book pays homage to a rock band that has most influenced alternative culture, the Grateful Dead. It critically discussing the evolution of the libertarian spirit in the USA, which was born and developed in the 1960s and merged in the last three decades into a libertarian ideology, based on individual freedom, antistatalism and the primacy of the spirit of the self-made man. Examining how this transition was functional, on the one hand, to high-tech digital innovation and, on the other, to the spirit of new platform capitalism. Andrea Fumagalli suggests that the process of capturing the libertarian spirit for capitalist purposes, which represents one of the clearest examples of "life subsumption", the acknowledgment that the life of individuals at the very moment that it triggers processes of social cooperation is a potential source of subversive behaviour, and how this can turn into a powerful tool for today's capitalist valorisation.
Reviews / Votes
'Financial Psychedelia and the Commons' is an exceptionally innovative book in the field of social sciences. Andrea Fumagalli places the reader amidst counterculture and cyberculture, evoking the spirit of Grateful Dead's music and contemporary blows against the Empire that denounce capitalism for exploiting commons through its financial infrastructure. * Stefano Lucarelli, University of Bergamo, Italy * 'Fumagalli's fascinating study reveals how traditions of US counterculture and contemporary radical economic projects share left libertarian tendencies. Particularly compelling is his argument that, despite the myriad ways in which digital technologies have been made to serve corporate and military interests, we can and should recuperate liberatory aspects that the utopian digital spirit of the 1990s still has to offer.' * Michael Hardt, Duke University, USA * 'Libertarianism is merging into a neo-fascism built by a plutocracy of narcissistic individualism, with a rejection of the fundamental human values of empathy, reviving eugenics as a dystopian political force. This book, derived from the psychedelic music of the Grateful Dead, is an apt warning of the dangers ahead.' * Guy Standing, SOAS University of London, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 136 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
200 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-41384-9 (9781350413849)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Andrea Fumagalli
Financial Psychedelia and the Commons
E-Book
approx. 06/2026
Bloomsbury Academic
€23.99
Available for download

Andrea Fumagalli
Financial Psychedelia and the Commons
E-Book
approx. 06/2026
Bloomsbury Academic
€23.99
Available for download
Person
Andrea Fumagalli is an activist and Professor of Economics and History of Economic Thought in the Department of Economics and Management at University of Pavia, Italy. He also teaches Eco-Social Economics at the Free University of Bolzano, Italy. He is the co-author of The Crisis of the Global Economy with Sandro Mezzadra (2010) and Cognitive Capitalism, Welfare and Labour (2019) with Alfonso Giuliani, Stefano Lucarelli, Carlo Vercellone.
Content
Acknowledgements
Preface to the English edition
Chapter 1: Counterculture and Cyberculture: the 1960s vs 1990s
Chapter 2: The Music of the Grateful Dead
Chapter 3: Exodus, Community Spirit and the Commons
Chapter 4: Open Source, Hacker Spirit, Proprietary Individualism, and Anarcho-Capitalism
Chapter 5: The Money of the Commonwealth and the Financial Counterculture
Chapter 6: Desiring Subjectivities and Californian Ideology: Towards a new form of subsumption?
List of Grateful Dead's Live concerts
Bibliography
Preface to the English edition
Chapter 1: Counterculture and Cyberculture: the 1960s vs 1990s
Chapter 2: The Music of the Grateful Dead
Chapter 3: Exodus, Community Spirit and the Commons
Chapter 4: Open Source, Hacker Spirit, Proprietary Individualism, and Anarcho-Capitalism
Chapter 5: The Money of the Commonwealth and the Financial Counterculture
Chapter 6: Desiring Subjectivities and Californian Ideology: Towards a new form of subsumption?
List of Grateful Dead's Live concerts
Bibliography