The Pyramid and the Common

How do we change the world? How do we break free from social arrangements that shape our everyday lives yet leave many of us exhausted, stressed, and diminished? These are systems that deepen inequality, fuel armed conflict, damage the environment, and increasingly threaten the conditions of life itself.

In this book, Massimo De Angelis explores the system of social cooperation we live in and reproduce every day, capitalism. Rather than analysing it from a distance, De Angelis examines it from the perspective of how people actually live, work, and care for one another, showing how our lives are organised through interconnected domains of value that structure power, labour, and social relations.

Crucially, De Angelis argues that change can emerge from within these conditions. By focusing on social reproduction, the everyday practices that sustain life, he identifies a space where collective organisation, struggle, and alternative ways of living can take shape.

Drawing on political economy, systems theory, cybernetics, and commons theory, this book offers both a clear diagnosis of our present crisis and a grounded vision for transforming how we live together.