CAPITAL AS POWER: A STUDY OF ORDER AND CREORDER
Jonathan Nitzan & Shimshon Bichler
RIPE Series in Global Political Economy | Routledge | May 2009
464 pages | Pbk. $39.95 | Hbk. $140.00
***
FRONT MATTER & CHAPTER 1: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/259/
ORDER THE BOOK:
http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/259/04/20090526_nb_cap_buy_review_web.htm
***
FROM THE BACK COVER:
Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after
centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is.
Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an 'economic' entity that
they count in universal units of 'utils' or 'abstract labour',
respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever
been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they don’t
exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these non-existing units,
their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that
matters most – the accumulation of capital.
This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors,
capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification
of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it
extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors
claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to
reshape – or creorder – their society.
Written in simple language, accessible to lay readers and experts alike,
the book develops a novel political economy. It takes the reader through
the history, assumptions and limitations of mainstream economics and its
associated theories of politics. It examines the evolution of Marxist
thinking on accumulation and the state. And it articulates an innovative
theory of 'capital as power' and a new history of the 'capitalist mode
of power'.
***
Free to repost and circulate with due attribution under the Creative
Commons License (attribution-noncommercial-no derivative).
To unsubscribe, reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject field.
***
Jonathan Nitzan
Political Science
York University
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, Ontario, M3J-1P3
Canada
Voice: (416) 736-2100, ext. 88822
Fax: (416) 736-5686
Email: nitzan at yorku.ca
Website: http://bnarchives.net
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
