Transitions : Methods, Theory, Politics / Tom Brass.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brass, Tom, 1946- author.

Series:

Studies in critical social sciences ; Volume 230.

Studies in Critical Social Sciences Series ; Volume 230

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development.

Economics--Sociological aspects.

Economics.

Materialism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (307 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Leiden, The Netherlands : Koninklijke Brill nv, [2022]

Summary:

Examined here is political discourse about the pattern and desirability of economic development, extending from historical and contemporary views about race, culture, and labour regimes, to how the same themes inform travel writing.

The focus of this volume is on political discourse about the pattern and desirability of economic development, and how/why historical interpretations of social phenomena connected to this systemic process alter. It is a trajectory pursued here with reference to the materialism of Marxism, via the mid-nineteenth century ideas about race, through the development decade, the ‘cultural turn’, debates about modes of production and their respective labour regimes, culminating in the role played by immigration before and after the Brexit referendum. Also examined is the trajectory followed by travel writing, and how many of its core assumptions overlap with those made in the social sciences and development studies. The object is to account for the way concepts informing these trajectories do or do not alter.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

List of Figures and Tables

Introduction (Steps Forward or Backwards?)

Reified Notions, Fantasmic Representations?

Transition, Critique, Silence

Marxist Methodology?

A Lesser Status and a Distant Place?

A Distant Place as a Greater Status

Themes

part 1

Travelling On

1Racisms (Home and Away)

Introduction: A Place in the World

Blood of the Founders

The Good Things of This World

Music, Speech, Passion

A Faint Uneasy Movement

They Are Our Brothers

One’s Own Free Will

To See with Distorted Vision

Avoiding the Question / Samuel Smiles Revisited

A Dearth of Workers

Steady Work, Job Security

Conclusion

2Anti-capitalisms (Lessons Unlearned by Postmodernists)

Introduction: The Anti-capitalism of Pro-slavery Discourse

For the Mutual Benefit of Both

Pro-slavery and/as (Conservative) Anti-capitalism

Forging New Chains for Themselves

All Capital Is Created by Labour

(Pro-slavery) Contradictions, (Postmodern) Similarities

Pro-slavery, Postmodernism, and Identity Politics

Empowering Populism

3Transitions (Real and Imagined)

Introduction: Simple Transitions?

The Parting to Come?

Trading Places

Feudalism, but Not Yet …

Free but Tied?

Workers, or Tenants?

Modes and Beams

How Do We Know?

Since the Beginning of the World

4Trajectories (to and from Unfreedom)

Introduction: Quo Vadis, Domine?

1950 to 1980

1980 to 2000

2000 to the Present

Theory, Methods, Problems

India: 18th Century Onwards

India: 1960s Onwards

UK: 2015 Onwards

part 2

On Travel

5Travellers, or Tourists? (Journeys Outside Europe)

Introduction: An Instinctive Simplicity, a Thoughtless Idealism

Hello, I Must Be Going

Tourists Who Are Not Tourists

The Ruin(s) of Time, the Time of Ruin(s)

Is Your Journey Really Necessary?

Traveller’s Tales

Ragpickers of History

Unevolved People

Pristine Other, Untouched Land

6Tourists, or Travellers? (European Journeys)

Introduction: Songs of Travel

City and Countryside

Class, Race, Blood

Away from Home

Always Defeated?

Land, Politics, Fascism

Peasants, Ancient and Modern

7Arrivals, Not Departures (on Never Leaving Venice)

Introduction: Venice, Tourism and the Agrarian Myth

The Ox Spoke

It Is Not Easy to Do One’s Duty / Loaded Pistols, Ominous Chatter

Real and Loveable?

A Dream Long Lost

8Other Worlds (Neo-populist Journeys)

Introduction: Worlds of Difference? / Chayanov: The Economic Case / Chayanov: The Economic Case Against / Chayanov: The Political Case Against

Undiscovered Country?

Journeys: Space, Time, Politics

Valuable Warnings, Wholesome Reprimands

Conclusion (Better Worlds?)

Bibliography

Author Index

Subject Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004520745

9004520740

OCLC:

1344161064

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004520745 DOI