The Multiple Meanings of Marx’s Value Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Bellofiore
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Monetary Theory ◽  
Capitalist Production ◽  
Labor Theory Of Value ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
Monetary Value ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Theory Of Value

The Marxian critique of political economy is inseparable from the "labor theory of value." But what exactly does this theory mean? This article considers Marx's value theory from five perspectives: as a monetary value theory, a theory of exploitation, a macro-monetary theory of capitalist production, a theory of individual prices, and a theory of crises.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

scholarly journals Articulating value and missing links in ‘Geographies of Dissociation’

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Havice ◽  
John Pickles
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Global Value Chain ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Labor Theory Of Value ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Direct Question ◽  
Cultural Economies ◽  
Theory Of Value

In the spirit of Ibert et al.’s ‘Geographies of Dissociation: Value Creation, “Dark” Places, and “Missing” Links’, we briefly suggest several ways in which ‘Geographies of Dissociation’ itself elides certain crucial issues in the cultural economies of value. The first relates to the need to develop more fully and concretely the relational spatialities of globally networked production. The second follows from this by suggesting that, in order to consolidate its argument of lacunae and elisions, the article overlooks or downplays crucial elements in the work of global value chain research, cultural studies and broader cultural-economic geography, and value theory that have—in their own ways—developed complex analyses of the spatial articulations of governance, ownership, branding, and the production of value. We conclude by returning to Marx’s value theory of labor (not to be confused with Ricardian labor theory of value) to suggest that a more direct question about what drives systems of cultural valuation in the context of networked production might enable the authors to advance the development of a dissociative geography.

scholarly journals The Formation of Marxist Theory of Surplus Value

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Shi
Keyword(s):  
Adam Smith ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Surplus Value ◽  
Labor Theory Of Value ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
David Ricardo

Marxist theory of surplus value is founded on the basis of Marx's labor theory of value. The theory of surplus value is based on mercantilism and the theory of surplus value of David Ricardo. Adam Smith and Owen also played a certain role in the formation of Marxist surplus value theory. Marx's analysis of the subject of labor and the process of labor is the basis of historical materialism of surplus value theory. This paper analyzes the significance of the formation of Marxist surplus value.

scholarly journals Vanished in gaps, vanquished in rifts: the social ecology of urban spatial change in a working class residential area, Peykan-Shahr, Tehran, Iran

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilia Farahani
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Residential Area ◽  
Spatial Change ◽  
Metabolic Rift ◽  
Labor Theory Of Value ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theory Of Value

The article aims to understand the forms and processes of socio-ecological changes following sociogeographical dislocation of workers in a working-class neighborhood (Peykan-Shahr) in Iran. The article integrates theories of gentrification and metabolic rift. Existing studies on urbanization in Iran refute the possibility of gentrification. This study, in contrast, by drawing attention to peculiarities of the capitalist economy in Iran, adapts the basic economic mechanisms of gentrification such as the rent/value gap and the concept of absolute rent, concluding that Peykan-Shahr is indeed in a process of gentrification. The theory of metabolic rift adds theoretical dimensions and complexity to the analysis and provides a richer understanding of the case. Grounded in Marx's labor theory of value, the analysis shows that by mediating the exploitation of labor/nature by capital through displacing workers from their houses, gentrification in Peykan-Shahr has caused a socio-ecological metabolic rift in terms of labor reproduction and deterioration of labor power.Key words: Socio-ecological metabolic rift, gentrification, absolute rent, Marxism, labor reproduction, political economy of Iran. 

150 Years of Das Kapital and No End in Sight. Unsystematic Remarks on a Never-Ending Story

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Monetary Theory ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
The Third ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
The Masses

Michael Heinrich, one of the leading Marx scholars, provides a general introduction into Das Kapital with emphasis on the latest interpretations of it. The circumstances surrounding its writing and publication are shown to have interfered with an adequate appreciation of it. The formal structure and organization of the first volume are obstacles to readers and demand much from their education and intellect. The article summarizes the basic trajectories of Marx’s criticisms of political economy, including the critique of naturalizing social forms arising under capitalism and Marx’s original monetary theory of value. The author disentangles Marx’s Das Kapital from views mistakenly ascribed to it, such as the idea that value is determined solely by labor and the prediction of pauperization of the masses. First, Marx’s theory of value goes well beyond explaining prices under capitalism. Second, his main prophecy concerned the inevitable growth of inequality between the masters of capital and the employed classes and did not forecast impoverishment. The paper also points out that the sequence of publication of different volumes of Das Kapital caused lacunae in interpreting Marx’s oeuvre. For instance Engels’ efforts made the third volume more accessible to readers but also obscured the overall pattern of Marx’s thinking. the article shows that Das Kapital was a dynamic and fluctuating project to such an extent that Marx himself several times revisited his views of the causes of economic crises and falling profits and also intended to deal extensively with ecological issues. Reaching an adequate understanding of the theory contained in Das Kapital cannot depend on the manuscripts of those volumes alone. Marx’s notebooks, which have only recently published, are an indispensable aid to understanding it.

The System is the Solution: Marx's Analysis of Capitalism

1986 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 13-13
Author(s):  
George Galster
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Economic Base ◽  
Radical Theory ◽  
Labor Theory Of Value ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Pedagogic Device

The following note describes a skit designed primarily as a pedagogic device to illustrate in a meaningful (and, hopefully, provocative and humorous) way Marx's analysis of capitalism. Numerous concepts and phenomena are “brought to life” in the skit: exploitation, immiseration and alienation of workers, maintenance wage, labor theory of value, mechanization and the division of labor, systemic tendencies toward economic crises, relationship of various superstructural components (welfare, religion, etc.) to the economic base, and the radical theory of the state. More specifically, the economic base of a hypothetical capitalist society consists of a stylized production process involving “resources” (Oreo cookies), “labor” (students selected from the class) and eventually “capital” (table knives). The ability of the monopoly capitalist to accumulate surplus by exploiting workers becomes manifest. Other elements of the social superstructure (unions, government, religion, etc.)

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