The beginning of history : value struggles and global capital / Massimo De Angelis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Angelis, M. (Massimo)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economics--History.

Economics.

History.

Economics--Political aspects.

Economic development.

Economic development--Social aspects.

Social change.

Global commons.

Physical Description:

xiv, 301 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; Ann Arbor, MI : Pluto, 2007.

Summary:

This passionate account explores groundbreaking new critical political economic theory and its role in bringing about radical social change. This book is a must for all political activists and students of political theory. Neoliberal capitalism embraces the idea of the 'end of history'. However, the diverse struggles for commons and dignity around the planet reveal a different reality: that of the beginning of history. This book analyses the frontline of this struggle. On one side a social force called capital pursues endless growth and monetary value. On the other side, other social forces strive to rearrange the web of life on their own terms. This book engages with alternative modes of co-production recently posed by the alter-globalisation movement, and it examines what these movements are up against.

Contents:

1 The beginning of history 1

Other dimensions 1

Front line and alternatives 5

Emanating antagonism 7

False polarities 10

Part I Orientations: Co-Production of Livelihoods as Contested Terrain

2 Value struggles 19

Temporary time-space commons 19

The market as an ethical system 24

Positing the outside 28

Value struggles 31

3 Capital as a social force 34

Capitalism as subsystem 34

Capital 37

Telos, drive and conatus 39

4 With no limits 43

Capital's boundlessness 43

Global M-C-M': a classic illustration 46

5 Production and reproduction 51

Circuit coupling 51

Waged and unwaged work and the realm of the invisible 56

6 Production, reproduction and global loops 65

The front line: the articulation between conati 65

International division of labour 71

Part II Global Loops: Some Explorations on the Contemporary Work Machine

7 Enclosures and disciplinary integration 79

Generation and homeostasis 79

A conceptual map 82

Governmentality 87

8 Global loops 102

Neoliberal globalisation 102

Globalisations 109

9 The global work machine 115

Global production networks and TNCs 115

Disciplinary trade 118

Spatial substitutability and 'class composition' 124

Part III Context, Contest and Text: Discourses and their Clashing Practices

10 Marx and the enclosures we face 133

Capital encloses 133

Marx and the continuous character of enclosures 136

Continuity, social conflict and alternatives 139

11 Enclosures with no limits 142

Enclosures as a front line 142

Types of enclosure 143

12 The 'law of value', immaterial labour, and the 'centre' of power 150

Global markets and value practices 150

What is the 'law of value'? 155

Critical approaches to the 'law of value' 157

The 'centre' of power 171

13 The valuing and measuring of capital 175

Measuring and feedback 175

Commodity values 178

Measuring and struggles 190

14 Market freedom and the prison: Hayek and Bentham 194

Market order 196

Panopticism 200

Market and panopticism: two overlapping orders 206

15 The fractal panopticon and ubiquitous revolution 213

The market order and panopticism 213

Beyond panopticism 222

Part IV 'By Asking Questions we Walk': The Problematics of Decoupling

16 The 'outside' 225

The beginning of history 225

The 'outside' 226

Enclosure, dispossession and the outside 229

Very brief detour on imperialism 233

Detritus-conatus 234

17 Commons 238

The production of commons 238

Freedom, community... 240

...And commons 243

Anarchism, communism and socialism 245

Other Web Resources 294.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 282-294) and index.

ISBN:

0745320368

9780745320366

074532035X

9780745320359

OCLC:

71239004