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Imperialism and Financialism (Reprint)
Get PDFOver the past century, Marxism has been radically transformed in line with circumstances and fashion. Theses that once looked solid have depreciated and fallen by the sideline; concepts that once were deemed crucial have been abandoned; slogans that once sounded clear and meaningful have become fuzzy and ineffectual.
But two key words seem to have survived the attrition and withstood the test of time: imperialism and financialism.
Talk of imperialism and financialism – and particularly of the nexus between them – remains as catchy as ever. Marxists of different colours – from classical, to neo to post – find the two terms expedient, if not indispensable. Radical anarchists, conservative Stalinists and distinguished academics of various denominations all continue to use and debate them.
The views of course differ greatly, but there is a common thread: for most Marxists, imperialism and financialism are prime causes of our worldly ills. Their nexus is said to explain capitalist development and underdevelopment; it underlies capitalist power and contradictions; and it drives capitalist globalization, its regional realignment and local dynamics. It is a fit-all logo for street demonstrators and a generic battle cry for armchair analysts.
The secret behind this staying power is flexibility. Over the years, the concepts of imperialism and financialism have changed more or less beyond recognition, as a result of which the link between them nowadays connotes something totally different from what it meant a century ago.
The purpose of this article is to outline this chameleon-like transformation, to assess what is left of the nexus and to ask whether this nexus is still worth keeping
Imperialism and Financialism. A Story of a Nexus
Get PDFOver the past century, Marxism has been radically transformed in line with circumstances and fashion. Theses that once looked solid have depreciated and fallen by the sideline; concepts that once were deemed crucial have been abandoned; slogans that once sounded clear and meaningful have become fuzzy and ineffectual.
But two key words seem to have survived the attrition and withstood the test of time: imperialism and financialism.
Talk of imperialism and financialism – and particularly of the nexus between them – remains as catchy as ever. Marxists of different colours – from classical, to neo to post – find the two terms expedient, if not indispensable. Radical anarchists, conservative Stalinists and distinguished academics of various denominations all continue to use and debate them.
The views of course differ greatly, but there is a common thread: for most Marxists, imperialism and financialism are prime causes of our worldly ills. Their nexus is said to explain capitalist development and underdevelopment; it underlies capitalist power and contradictions; and it drives capitalist globalization, its regional realignment and local dynamics. It is a fit-all logo for street demonstrators and a generic battle cry for armchair analysts.
The secret behind this staying power is flexibility. Over the years, the concepts of imperialism and financialism have changed more or less beyond recognition, as a result of which the link between them nowadays connotes something totally different from what it meant a century ago.
The purpose of this article is to outline this chameleon-like transformation, to assess what is left of the nexus and to ask whether this nexus is still worth keeping
Call for papers on the subject of "Capital as Power"
Get PDFA call for papers for the "Capital as Power" section of the Rethinking Marxism Conference (New Marxian Times), UMASS Amherst, November 5-8, 2009.
Internal deadline for abstract submission: JUNE 30, 2009
Contours of Crisis II: Fiction and Reality (Reprint)
Get PDFEconomists tell us that the current crisis is our punishment for letting the fiction of finance distort the real economy. But what exactly is this “real” economy and how does finance distort it? Do the economists have a clue
Political Economy of Capital Accumulation (YorkU, AP/POLS 4292 6.0, Undergraduate, Fall Term, 2009-10)
Get PDFCapital is the central power institution of capitalism: it is the main force underlying the relentless transformation of power relations in capitalist societies. The course explores the accumulation of capital from three interrelated perspectives: conceptual, historical and empirical. At the conceptual level, the course examines the evolution of different orthodox and critical theories of value and how these theories serve to explain and justify contending notions of accumulation. At the historical level, it traces the development of capital from its humble pre-capitalist origins to its present world dominance. At the empirical level, it studies and juxtaposes the qualitative and quantitative aspects of capital accumulation and study what they mean for the contemporary political economy. In parallel to these explorations, the course introduces students to the art and science of empirical research. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to develop and integrate theoretical arguments with their own empirical work
The Capitalist Mode of Power: A Research Seminar(YorkU, GS/POLS 6260 6.0, Graduate, Fall Term, 2009-10)
Get PDFCapitalism is often understood as a mode of production and consumption. The seminar critiques this view and offers an alternative perspective of capitalism as a mode of power.
Thematically, the course consists of five parts: (1) Dilemmas of Political Economy: the two basic bifurcations separating 'politics' from 'economics' and the 'real' from the ‘nominal’, and how these dualities have gradually fractured political economy; (2) The Enigma of Capital: the liberal and Marxists conceptions of value and capital and why political economists still try to sort them out; (3) Capitalization: how discounting conquered the world while political economists looked the other way; (4) Bringing Power Back In: the history and theory of the capitalist mode of power; and (5) Capital as Power: a radical alternative to liberal and Marxists theories of accumulation.
Pedagogically, the seminar seeks to prepare students toward conducting their own independent research. Students are introduced to various electronic data sources, instructed in different methods of analysis and tutored in developing their empirical research skills. As the seminar progresses, these skills are used both to assess various theories and to develop the students’ own theoretical/empirical research project
Invitation for a seminar on the current crisis followed by a book launch of CAPITAL AND POWER
Get PDFSEMINAR: "Contours of Crisis: Fiction and Reality"
Monday, October 26, 2009, 2:30 – 4:30 pm, Verney Room, S674 Ross, Keele Campus of York University
BOOK LAUNCH: "Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder"
Monday, October 26, 2009, 4:30 – 6:00 pm, Political Science Lounge, S655 Ross, Keele Campus of York University
Food and refreshments will be served
Contours of Crisis III: Systemic Fear and Forward-Looking Finance
Get PDFThe rituals of finance condition investors to look forward and price assets based on expected future earnings. But what happens during a systemic crisis, when the future of capitalism itself is in doubt
Imperialism and Financialism. A Story of a Nexus (Reprint)
Get PDFOver the past century, Marxism has been radically transformed in line with circumstances and fashion. Theses that once looked solid have depreciated and fallen by the sideline; concepts that once were deemed crucial have been abandoned; slogans that once sounded clear and meaningful have become fuzzy and ineffectual.
But two key words seem to have survived the attrition and withstood the test of time: imperialism and financialism.
Talk of imperialism and financialism – and particularly of the nexus between them – remains as catchy as ever. Marxists of different colours – from classical, to neo to post – find the two terms expedient, if not indispensable. Radical anarchists, conservative Stalinists and distinguished academics of various denominations all continue to use and debate them.
The views of course differ greatly, but there is a common thread: for most Marxists, imperialism and financialism are prime causes of our worldly ills. Their nexus is said to explain capitalist development and underdevelopment; it underlies capitalist power and contradictions; and it drives capitalist globalization, its regional realignment and local dynamics. It is a fit-all logo for street demonstrators and a generic battle cry for armchair analysts.
The secret behind this staying power is flexibility. Over the years, the concepts of imperialism and financialism have changed more or less beyond recognition, as a result of which the link between them nowadays connotes something totally different from what it meant a century ago.
The purpose of this article is to outline this chameleon-like transformation, to assess what is left of the nexus and to ask whether this nexus is still worth keeping
Contours of Crisis: Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil? (Reprint)
Get PDFThis is the first in a series of short articles we plan to write on the current crisis. Our aim in this series is threefold: to outline some of the important contours of the crisis; to situate these patterns in historical context; and to reflect on their possible causes and implications.
This paper sets the stage for the series. It outlines the conventional wisdom about the cause of crisis; it describes the chronology of events; and it contrasts the pattern and magnitude of the current downturn with those of earlier episodes. The overall picture painted by this analysis is highly stylized: crises appear to come and go with remarkable regularity, their oscillations are fairly similar and they share the same order of magnitude. The whole process seems almost ‘automatic’, and automaticity is reassuring: it suggests that the current crisis has run much of its course and that doom and gloom will soon give way to a new upswing.
But what if this automaticity is a mirage