How did the leaders of technology companies become oligarchs and how did the media elite ally with them? Why can we speak of the emergence of a neo-feudalism in which the mediaeval aristocrats are embodied by the great technology oligarchs and the clergy by the media elite? How does this new alliance impede social mobility, and what becomes of the middle class that is essential to democracy? In his book The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class (Encounters Book, 2020) Joel Kotkin attempts to answer questions like these. The author describes himself as an old-fashioned social democrat committed to preserving social mobility.

Invited speaker: Joel Kotkin (Chapman University)