Conformation of the primitive accumulation and capitalist spirit. Theory of corporate governmentality

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 394
Author(s):  
Eduardo Rivera Vicencio
Author(s):  
Anthony P. D’Costa ◽  
Achin Chakraborty

Since the mid-2000s, proliferating “land wars” have exposed a contradiction between the land requirements of neoliberal capitalism and the political weight of farmers in India’s democracy. Whether, how, and for whom this contradiction is resolved constitutes India’s “new” land question. But this chapter argues that Marx’s “primitive accumulation” or Harvey’s “accumulation by dispossession” are inadequate to understand this conjuncture; and it advances the concept of “regimes of dispossession” as an alternative. It argues that from the early 1990s, India shifted from a regime that dispossessed land for state-led projects of material expansion to one that dispossesses land for private and decreasingly productive investments. This new regime, in which states have become mere land brokers for private capital, is arguably less “developmental” than its Nehruvian predecessor. The upshot is that India’s “land wars” are unlikely to dissipate any time soon; and the “land question” may be the largest contradiction for Indian capitalism for the foreseeable future.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Biao

AbstractThis article argues that ‘would-be migrants’ – people who prepare for migrating overseas to the extent that their present lives are significantly changed – should become a central figure in migration studies. There are many more would-be migrants than actual migrants, and they also have deeper impacts on migration processes and local societies. Instead of treating the would-be migrant as a derivative of the category of ‘migrant’, this article establishes it as the primary figure, and argues that migration is a contingent outcome of being a ‘would-be’. In order to do so this article delves into the living conditions of would-be migrants in northeast China, with a focus on two aspects that concern them the most: the exorbitant intermediary fees and the high risks involved. The would-be migrants' experiences suggest that the prevalent pattern of unskilled outmigration since the 1990s should be understood as a result of developments inside of China, particularly a condition that I call the ‘displacement of the present’. The figure of would-be migrant is not only methodologically revealing for migration studies, but also urges us to rethink how we may engage with rapid social changes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Claudio Corradi

Medieval Italian Comuni are often considered as one of the cradles of the modern capitalist spirit. Comuni introduced economic legislation in an attempt to counteract restrictions to competition on the one hand and to control the price of certain goods and services on the other. Price control of basic commodities was often motivated by reasons of public order – such as preventing commoners’ riots. Despite some loose analogies with the modern European Union competition law approach to pricing – namely in the area of excessive pricing – the Italian medieval Comuni pricing theory and practice substantially differed from the modern European Union one. Medieval theory struggled in reconciling market mechanisms with costs analysis and missed the distinction between efficiency and distribution. Moreover, medieval Comuni market variables were substantially divergent from the modern European ones. Despite Comuni being the wealthiest areas in Europe in those days, their consumers had significantly lower buying power, they were affected by different cognitive biases than modern consumers and they were highly segmented from a gender perspective. Medieval producers, that is artisans, did not enjoy the degree of market power that characterizes modern oligopolists. Artisans produced goods for merchants who were the main promoters of trade and economic development. Merchants often succeeded in squeezing artisans’ profits, granting consumers lower prices for manufactured goods, at times also thanks to free trade policies pursued by Comuni administrations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 540-557
Author(s):  
Jean-François Jacques ◽  
Antoine Rebeyrol

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Jeffery R. Webber

This article introduces the symposium on Glen Coulthard’sRed Skin, White Masks. It begins by situating the book’s publication in the wake of the extensive mobilisations of the Idle No More movement in Canada in 2012–13. Coulthard’s strategic hypotheses on the horizons of Indigenous liberation in the book are intimately linked to his participation in these recent struggles. The article then locatesRed Skin, White Maskswithin a wider renaissance of Indigenous Studies in the North American context in recent years, highlighting Coulthard’s unique and sympathetic extension of Marx’s critique of capitalism, particularly through his use of the concept of ‘primitive accumulation’. Next, the article outlines the long arc of the argument inRed Skin, White Masksand the organisation of the book’s constituent parts, providing a backdrop to the critical engagements that follow from Peter Kulchyski, Geoff Mann, George Ciccariello-Maher, and Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz. The article closes with reflections on Coulthard’s engagement with Fanon, who, besides Marx, is the most important polestar inRed Skin, White Masks.


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