A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion

A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion PDF Author: Werner Bonefeld
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000849937
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
This book explores a variety of interconnected themes central to contemporary Marxist theory and its further development as a critical social theory. Championing the critique of political economy as a critical theory of society and rejecting Marxian economics as a contradiction in terms, it argues instead that economic categories are perverted social categories, before identifying the sheer unrest of life - the struggle to make ends meet - as the negative content of the reified system of economic objectivity. With class struggle recognised as the negative category of the cold society of capitalist wealth, which sees in humanity a living resource for economic progress, the author contends that the critique of class society finds its rational solution in the society of human purposes, that is, the classless society of communist individuals. A theoretically sophisticated engagement with Marxist thought, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion will appeal to scholars of social and political theory with interests in critical theory and post-capitalist imaginaries.

A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion

A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion PDF Author: Werner Bonefeld
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000849937
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores a variety of interconnected themes central to contemporary Marxist theory and its further development as a critical social theory. Championing the critique of political economy as a critical theory of society and rejecting Marxian economics as a contradiction in terms, it argues instead that economic categories are perverted social categories, before identifying the sheer unrest of life - the struggle to make ends meet - as the negative content of the reified system of economic objectivity. With class struggle recognised as the negative category of the cold society of capitalist wealth, which sees in humanity a living resource for economic progress, the author contends that the critique of class society finds its rational solution in the society of human purposes, that is, the classless society of communist individuals. A theoretically sophisticated engagement with Marxist thought, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion will appeal to scholars of social and political theory with interests in critical theory and post-capitalist imaginaries.

Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy

Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy PDF Author: Werner Bonefeld
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441161392
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Subversive thought is none other than the cunning of reason when confronted with a social reality in which the poor and miserable are required to sustain the illusion of fictitious wealth. Yet, this subsidy is absolutely necessary in existing society, to prevent its implosion. The critique of political economy is a thoroughly subversive business. It rejects the appearance of economic reality as a natural thing, argues that economy has not independent existence, expounds economy as political economy, and rejects as conformist rebellion those anti-capitalist perspectives that derive their rationality from the existing conceptuality of society. Subversion focuses on human conditions. Its critical subject is society unaware of itself. This book develops Marx's critique of political economy as negative theory of society. It does not conform to the patterns of the world and demands that society rids itself of all the muck of ages and founds itself anew.

Mute Compulsion

Mute Compulsion PDF Author: Søren Mau
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839763493
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
Despite insoluble contradictions, intense volatility and fierce resistance, the crisis-ridden capitalism of the 21st century lingers on. To understand capital's paradoxical expansion and entrenchment amidst crisis and unrest, Mute Compulsionoffers a novel theory of the historically unique forms of abstract and impersonal power set in motion by the subjection of social life to the profit imperative. Building on a critical reconstruction of Karl Marx's unfinished critique of political economy and a wide range of contemporary Marxist theory, philosopher Sren Mau sets out to explain how the logic of capital tightens its stranglehold on the life of society by constantly remoulding the material conditions of social reproduction. In the course of doing so, Mau intervenes in classical and contemporary debates about the value form, crisis theory, biopolitics, social reproduction, humanism, logistics, agriculture, metabolism, the body, competition, technology and relative surplus populations.

A Critical Theory of Police Power

A Critical Theory of Police Power PDF Author: Mark Neocleous
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 178873520X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Putting police power into the centre of the picture of capitalism The ubiquitous nature and political attraction of the concept of order has to be understood in conjunction with the idea of police. Since its first publication, this book has been one of the most powerful and wide-ranging critiques of the police power. Neocleous argues for an expanded concept of police, able to account for the range of institutions through which policing takes place. These institutions are concerned not just with the maintenance and reproduction of order, but with its very fabrication, especially the fabrication of a social order founded on wage labour. By situating the police power in relation to both capital and the state and at the heart of the politics of security, the book opens up into an understanding of the ways in which the state administers civil society and fabricates order through law and the ideology of crime. The discretionary violence of the police on the street is thereby connected to the wider administrative powers of the state, and the thud of the truncheon to the dull compulsion of economic relations.

Critical Theory and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism

Critical Theory and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism PDF Author: Heiko Feldner
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 144113784X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
This volume reassesses the nature of the current global economic crisis and its implication for the 21st century, through the unique lens of Marx's theory of the value-form as the unconscious matrix of modern society. Going beyond orthodox Marxist and postmodernist accounts, the author offers fresh new readings of Marx, Benjamin, Foucault, and Žižek. Here he argues that capitalism has not only entered its greatest crisis since WWII, but has in fact reached its historical limit and is in terminal decline. In this light, the book seeks to answer how a rerun of Keynesian regulations could possibly resolve the crisis. It also inquires as to whether a Green New Deal might succeed when the gap between work to be had and work to be done widens, and what alternatives neo-Marxian approaches offer considering the failure of Marxism in the 20th century. This far-reaching, critical examination of the crisis not only builds on critical theory, but also offers new readings of key theorists that will appeal to anyone interested in political theory, critical theory, and political economy.

Headstrong and Unorthodox Pioneers for a Critical Theory of Consumption

Headstrong and Unorthodox Pioneers for a Critical Theory of Consumption PDF Author: Michael-Burkhard Piorkowsky
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3658420502
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This volume offers contributions on the fundamentals of current consumption theory and consumption research, which have developed almost entirely from originally unorthodox approaches against traditional micro- and macroeconomic theory. The inspiration came mainly from social economic behavioural research and ecological economics. But the reception is very patchy and the history is largely forgotten. With reference to the work of earlier authors, new arguments are offered to the current discussion about delimitations and paradoxes in consumption and the still narrowly understood consumer role. It is as much about rework in sharpening the understanding of consumption and consumers in their lifeworlds as it is about indications of fruitfulness for the analysis of open questions. It is about arguments for a paradigmatic reorientation of consumer research and policy. The contributions address in particular ambivalences, options and future modes in consumption in the search for individual satisfaction and ecological sustainability. This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.

Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics

Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics PDF Author: Albino Barrera
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521853415
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Barrera addresses adverse effects of market operations on individuals from the viewpoint of Christian ethics.

Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism

Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism PDF Author: Marcel Stoetzler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350281387
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This volume provides a systematic re-examination of the Frankfurt School's theory of antisemitism and, employing this critical theory, investigates the presence of antisemitism in 20th- and 21st-century politics and society. Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism uncovers how critical theory differs from mainstream socialist or liberal critiques of antisemitism, as it frames its rejection of antisemitism in the critique of other aspects of modern capitalist society, which traditional theories leave unchallenged or critique only in passing. Amongst others, these include issues of identity, nation, race, and sexuality. In exploring the Frankfurt School's writings on antisemitism therefore, the chapters in this book reveal connections to other pressing societal issues, such as racism more broadly, patriarchy, statism, and the societal dynamics of the ever-evolving capitalist mode of production. Putting the theory to practice, this volume brings together interdisciplinary scholars and activists who employ critical theory to scrutinise right- and left-wing manifestations of antisemitism. They develop, in their critique of antisemitism, a critique of capitalism, as the authors ask: why does modern capitalist society seem bound to produce antisemitism? And how do we challenge it? At a time when the rise of populism internationally has brought with it new strains of antisemitism, this is an essential resource that demonstrates the continuing relevance of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School for the struggle against antisemitism today.

The Automatic Fetish

The Automatic Fetish PDF Author: Beverley Best
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1804294810
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
The Automatic Fetish traces Marx's analysis of capital, step by step, through the material compiled posthumously as the third volume of Capital. Identifying the critique of value as the central through line of the entire work, Beverley Best elaborates a theory of movement through which the capital machine generates social forms of appearance as the inversion of its inner operating mechanisms. Neither a return to basics nor a new-fangled reconstruction, The Automatic Fetish eschews novelty to show once again that Marx rewards careful study. - 'If I had to choose one book that would make the case for the relevance of Marx's critique of political economy to the humanities, this might very well be it' Colleen Lye, co-editor of After Marx - 'The contribution of The Automatic Fetish is hard to exaggerate' Nicholas Brown, author of Autonomy - 'Will make a significant contribution to the wider field of materialist theory' Joshua Clover, author of Riot. Strike. Riot - 'In Best's hands, Capital becomes not only fascinating but useful, down to its last detail. Written with clarity, focus, and urgency, Best has "unreconstructed" Marx for our times' Richard Dienst, author of The Bonds of Debt - 'A groundbreaking book' Werner Bonefeld, author of A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion - 'That rare work of theory whose practical implications just sing out loud . Surely among the most useful books on Capital III ever written' Christopher Nealon, author of The Matter of Capital - 'Brilliant, eloquent, and precise. Best has given us one of the most profound re-readings of Capital to have appeared in a generation and an essential source' Neil Larsen, author of Determinations

Marx and Critical Theory

Marx and Critical Theory PDF Author: Emmanuel Renault
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004374949
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
Marx and Critical Theory examines Marx’s main philosophical, political and social theoretical ideas. Its purpose is twofold: making sense of the concepts and theses of Marx, and showing that they remain relevant for contemporary critical theory.