Theoretical research summaries
Populism has become a formidable political force across the world, ranging from Trump and Bolsonaro in the Americas to Duterte and Modi in Asia as well as Brexit and a variety of populist movements across Europe. While populism comes in different forms, conventionally grouped into exclusionary right-wing and inclusionary [...]
Democratic socialists frame their project nationally without reference to the trans-national context, while also framing neoliberals’ view of ‘nationalism’ as regressive. Actually, the transnational context of the prevailing mid-range form of capitalism or ‘model of development’ influences nationalist tendencies that may be regressive or progressive. Present regressive nationalist tendencies exploited [...]
Arizona’s strike leaders harnessed the digital powers of information and communication technologies to promote organizing, allowing the movement to reach beyond social media’s echo chambers. It was through digital tools that AEU promoted targeted in-person outreach and therefore built a more powerful walkout.
Over the past 40 years, however, a formidable body of literature has challenged the prevailing assumptions about informal workers, asserting that their vulnerability stems not from their lack of integration into the mainstream economy, but rather from their subordinated positions within it.
Beyond rediscovering the lost history of the Tsarist empire’s non-Russian Marxists, my study addresses the following puzzle: Why did revolutionary processes and outcomes diverge so dramatically across time (between 1905 and 1917) and space (between the different regions of imperial Russia)?
"OK Boomer" emerged as a symptom of late-capitalist postmodernity among a generation who, for structural reasons, may not ever realize the even modestly comfortable lifestyles of many of their (grand)parents. Rather than confront this structural issue, many engage in “fetishistic disavowal.”
Social Reproduction Theory recenters the analysis of capitalism on its reproductive architecture. Here, I further discuss the centrality of social reproduction to value generation and develop a ‘value theory of inclusion’. I identify three concrete mechanisms through which social reproduction contributes to value generation. The first reproductive mechanism is based on (migrant) workers’ living arrangements at their place of work: dormitories or informal housing in slum-like industrial villages. The second channel through which social reproduction is generative of value is through the complex process of rural-urban migration and circulation of labour, which subsidizes capital by socialising reproductive costs. The third channel is the incorporation of homeworkers into global value chains.
Marx’s influence extends well beyond the self-identified Marxian school to several other important heterodox traditions within economics, though this often passes unrecognised on both sides. Consequently, the proper boundaries of the Marxian school of economics are much wider than either many self-identified Marxists, or indeed crypto-Marxists, generally consider. Each of the Minskian, post-Keynesian, Sraffian, institutional, feminist and social ecological (dominant) schools/branches of heterodox economics make a significant contribution in developing effectively Marxist themes and theory. Self-identified Marxists, as well as crypto-Marxists, stand to benefit intellectually and practically from a mutual recognition of this implicit division of hererodox economics labour.
The term ‘precarity’ has gained significance in the social sciences, as a number of recently published international compilations illustrate. Responding to the neoliberal transformations of the labor market, precarity emerged as a category attempting not only to describe the prevailing conditions work (marked by the continuous losing of workers’ rights), [...]
Contrary to the classical sociological tradition of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, Margaret Thatcher famously proclaimed that “there is no such thing as society.” Similarly mainstream economics assumes the basic unit of individuals and individual private property as the foundation of the market system. Drawing upon her mentor Friedrich von Hayek, [...]
