The Communist Hypothesis and Revolutionary Capitalisms: Exploring the Idea of Communist Geographies for the Twenty-first Century

This essay starts from the presumption that "the communist hypothesis" is still a good one, but argues that the idea of communism requires urgent re-thinking in light of both the "obscure" disaster of twentieth century really existing socialism and the specific conditions of twenty-first century capitalism. I explore the contours of the communist hypothesis, chart the characteristics of the revolutionary capitalism of the twenty-first century and consider how our present predicament relates to the urgency of rethinking and reviving the communist hypothesis. Throughout, I tentatively suggest a number of avenues that require urgent intellectual and theoretical attention and interrogate the present condition in light of the possibilities for creating communist geographies for the twenty-first century.