Waypoints 2

This new book brings together recent writing and spans the period from the Covid 19 pandemic to the ongoing wars in the Ukraine and Gaza. Like the pieces in the companion Waypoints volume, these essays are occasional in that they were prompted by particular contingencies, both personal and political. Yet in selecting and bringing these texts together, the book traces an emergent set of connections between what have come to be known as the ‘grey zones’ of social, cultural and geo-political conflict. 

The book defines the grey zone in a new way, focussing on those widening arenas of public discourse and private anxiety where received certainties about how to tackle injustice and inequality no longer have so much traction in shaping commitments or actions. To be ‘in two minds’ about their possible outcomes is no longer a symptom of indecision but the way new principles of uncertainty are having to be lived, made sense of and, where possible, surmounted. 

Taken together these studies add up to an ambitious attempt to explore a creatively habitable space of political and intellectual engagement with the multiple crises of our times in which it is possible to remain in doubts and uncertainties, refusing to reach irritably after foregone conclusions disguised as facts or faith whilst still sustaining realistic principles of hope. 

The book is organised into six thematic parts: 

Variations on a themes of Primo Levi charts the emergence of grey zones across a range of contemporary social, economic and geo-political contexts, including the war in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. 

Reframings of Knowledge Power looks at the changing definition and formation of intellectuals, at their role in and against the neo-liberal university and the reformatting of knowledge power in the age of digital capitalism.

Soundings from Left field examines class dis/identifications and the principles of hope historically associated with the Left and labour movement and asks how has their weakening impacted on the lives and life stories of those who are still having to grow up working class?

From the Other Side of the Tracks focuses on urban regeneration as a site of private aspiration and public disenchantment and looks at how this has worked out on the ground in the East End of London in the wake of the 2012 Olympics. 

In the War Zone investigates the changing impact of war on civil society, its art and cultural memoryscapes. How far are new military and surveillance technologies blurring the distinction between the frontlines and backyards of ideological conflicts, creating a new grey zone between state and civil society? 

Antibody Politics maps the emergence of grey zones around contentious bio-political issues of race-ism and public responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. In what ways is the Left’s interventions is these debates helping to open up the possibilities of democratic renewal in civil society or conversely fuelling support for divisive culture wars and populist conspiracy theories? 

Across these different areas, the book’s focus is on the collateral damage caused by the collapse of institutions, movements and discourses which hitherto sustained principles of hope in the advent of a better, fairer and more generous world view. The ambition here is to stay as alert to possible emergent forms of progressive politics as to the all too familiar structures which inhibit, pre-empt or corrupt their development. As this disunited island continues its struggle to find a coherent post-Imperial role in an increasingly dangerous geo-political conjuncture the book argues that we need to challenge nostalgias for a future that is always already guaranteed as vigorously as the longing to return to a past that never was. 

Advance Reviews 

‘Making sense of a complex and increasingly absurd world doesn’t start with policy – but with a mindset that can negotiate these fast moving time with others. I implore you to read Waypoints: Studies in the Grey Zone to help train your mind to deal with our chaotic and overwhelming reality so that we can shape it to be as human and humane as possible.’
Neal Lawson, Director Compass

‘This book of essays has a marvellous panorama, a consistently radical perspective on world events while also paying close attention to the politics of the everyday. Cohen’s recent writings deserve a wide and a popular readership.’ 
Angela McRobbie, Emerita Professor Goldsmiths College

‘Bringing together the joyful wit and steely wisdom of his writing over recent years, this book is a brilliant guide to those grey areas of political and personal life, where certainties and orthodoxies of thought crumble into incoherence before the complexity of the issues but also open up fresh possibilities for radical change.’ 
Lynne Segal, Author of ‘Out of Time’

Here is a link to the First Waypoints Book

‘Waypoints II: Studies in the Grey Zone’

 ISBN: 978-1-7385673-3-1
 Publication date: First quarter of 2025
 Perfect bound paperback. Size133x203mm.  Extent: 440pp