Epochal crisis : the exhaustion of global capitalism / William I. Robinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robinson, William I., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capitalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 224 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

In a groundbreaking new study, acclaimed scholar of global capitalism William I. Robinson presents a bold, original, and timely 'big picture' analysis of the unprecedented global crisis. Robinson synthesizes the different economic, social, political, military, and ecological dimensions of the crisis, applying his theory of global capitalism to elucidate these multidimensional and interconnected aspects. Addressing urgent issues such as economic stagnation, runaway financial speculation, unprecedented social inequalities, political conflict, expanding wars, and the threat to the biosphere, he illustrates how these different dimensions relate to one another and stem from the underlying contradictions of a global system spiralling out of control. This is a significant theoretical contribution to the study of globalization and capitalist crisis, in which Robinson concludes that the conditions for global capitalist renewal are becoming exhausted.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Title page

Copyright page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Toward a Theory of Global Capitalist Exhaustion

The Tool of Radical Political Economy

1 Structural Crisis: Overaccumulation

The Vocabulary of Capitalism and Its Crises

Globalization, Crisis Theory, and Absolute and Relative Surplus Value

Luxemburg and Grossman

Absolute and Relative Surplus Value

Cycles of Crises as Cycles of Class Struggle

The Digital Revolution: A New Round of Time and Space Restructuring

A New Era of Automation?

Back to the Future: The Shift from Absolute to Relative Surplus Value

2 Crisis of Social Reproduction

The Absolute General Law of Capitalist Accumulation in the Age of Globalization

Surplus Humanity

Capitalism's Twofold Character and the Commodification of Social Reproduction

The Exploitation of Female Reproductive Labor and the Production of Surplus Labor

Planet of Paupers and Billionaires

A New Round of Global Enclosures

Digitalization: Super-Exploitation and Automation Revisited

To Super-Exploit or to Automate?

The Automation of Services and Professional Proletarians

3 Legitimacy Crisis, Geopolitical Conflict, and Global Police State

A Contradictory Mandate

The Breakdown of Consensual Domination

The Political and the Economic: The State and (Transnational) Capital

The Escalation of International Tension and Geopolitical Conflict

What about Imperialism?

4 Collapse of the Biosphere

The Infinite Character of Capital in a Finite Biosphere

Anthropocene or Capitalocene?

Ecological Holocaust

Capital's "Green" Strategy

The Poor Are to Blame

Alice in Wonderland: The TCC Will Save the Planet

The Climate Emergency Is Good for Business

The Final Frontier and the Specter of Collapse

5 Into the Vortex

Systemic Crisis.

Capitalism's Extermination Impulse

Genocide: The Gaza Option

Locking In, Locking Out, and Locking Up Surplus Humanity

Death and Destruction: "Fit Quite Nicely with Our Portfolio"

The Urgency of the Moment and the Centrality of the Political

Select Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 28 Aug 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-67050-6

1-009-67054-9

1-009-67051-4

OCLC:

1543149703