scholarly journals Rosa Luxemburg’s ‘Accumulation of Capital’: New Perspectives on Capitalist Development and American Hegemony

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Consumer Capitalism ◽  
Developmental States ◽  
The North ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Post War

The article begins with a cri tique of a variety of Marxist theories on capitalist development and the hegemony of the United States. These theories either see capitalism in stagnation and American hegemony in decline since the 1970s or understand neoliberalism as the American way to permanent hegemony. The former fail to explain accumulation during the era of neoliberalism, the latter can’t explain the current crisis of neoliberal capitalism. As an alternative a Luxemburgian approach is suggested, which proceeds in two steps. One, core concepts of Rosa Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital are introduced and the Marxist debate about her work reviewed. This is necessary because of the absence of any tradition of Luxemburgian political economy. Second, from a Luxemburgian perspective post-war capitalism developed in two phases, each of which was possible because class-struggles and international conflicts had opened non-capitalist environments for capitalist penetration. The first phase gave rise to consumer capitalism and neo-colonialism; the second was characterized by accumulation by dispossession that rolled back welfare states in the North and developmental states in the South, while also integrating formerly state-socialist countries, notably China, into the capitalist world-system. Cet article commence par une critique de plusieurs théories Marxistes sur le développement capitaliste et l’hégémonie des Etats-Unis. Soit ces théories constatent un capitalisme en stagnation et une hégémonie américaine en déclin depuis les années soixante-dix, soit elles décrivent le néolibéralisme comme la voie américaine vers l’hégémonie permanente. Celles-ci ne peuvent pas expliquer la crise actuelle du capitalisme néolibéral, tandis que celles-là échouent à expliquer le processus d’accumulation du capital pendant l’ère néolibérale. Comme alternative, l’auteur propose une approche inspirée par Luxemburg, en deux temps. Premièrement, il introduit les concepts clés de l’Accumulation du capital de Rosa Luxemburg et résume les débats Marxistes autour de ses œuvres. Ce temps est nécessaire du fait de l’absence d’une tradition d’économie politique à la suite de Luxemburg. Deuxièmement, dans une perspective issue de Luxemburg, le capitalisme d’après-guerre s’est développé en deux phases, dont chacune était possible parce que les luttes de classes et les conflits internationaux ont ouvert des brèches dans des sociétés non-capitalistes pour la pénétration du capitalisme. La première phase a permis l’émergence du capitalisme consumériste et du néo-colonialisme ; la deuxième se caractérise par l’accumulation par dépossession de l’état-providence dans le Nord et des états en développement dans le Sud, ainsi que par l’intégration des nations auparavant socialistes, notamment la Chine, dans le système-monde capitaliste.

Junk aesthetics in a throwaway age

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dezeuze
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Planned Obsolescence ◽  
Consumer Capitalism ◽  
Robert Rauschenberg ◽  
East And West ◽  
Post War

For Arendt, the fragile balance between labour, work and action that lies at the heart of the human condition was fundamentally endangered by the planned obsolescence characteristic of the new post-war consumer capitalism. Artworks displaying a ‘junk’ aesthetic produced on the East and West Coasts of the United States in the period between 1957 and 1962 can be read in light of Arendt’s perspective, which intersected with both sociological critiques of the new capitalism and the writings of Zen master D.T. Suzuki and other popularisers of Zen Buddhism. Jack Kerouac’s 1958 novel The Dharma Bums resonated with both critiques of consumer society and newly discovered Zen alternatives. This chapter outlines some of the links between Kerouac’s Beat aesthetic and the assemblage and happenings of the early 1960s, by analysing the reception of landmark exhibitions such as The Art of Assemblage in 1961, and the practices of Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Bruce Conner and Allan Kaprow.

scholarly journals Is it the end of North-American hegemony? A structuralist perspective on Arrighi’s systemic cycles of accumulation and the theory of hegemonic stability

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 434-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCOS VINICIUS ISAIAS MENDES
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
North American ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The North ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
Theory Of Hegemonic Stability ◽  
Hegemonic Stability

ABSTRACT The paper aims to present some aspects of the debate about the end of the hegemony of the United States, in light of the theories of systemic cycles of accumulation and hegemonic stability. Among the conclusions, the paper shows that the North-American hegemony is diminishing not only because of the emergence of new powerful countries, such as China, but because the international system, composed by new powerful actors such as multinational corporations, global cities, religious organizations and transnational terrorist groups, is diminishing the means by which the US has exercised its global power since the mid twentieth century.

Stuart Hall's Discursive Turn

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 556-563
Author(s):  
JAY GARCIA
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Social History ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Consumer Capitalism ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S

Recalling his work as cofounder and contributor toUniversities and Left Review, or the ULR group, in the lead-up to the founding of cultural studies during the 1950s, Stuart Hall noted that much of that work had to do with the United States. “In geopolitical terms we were of course neutralists, hostile to the politics emanating from the State Department in Washington,” Hall wrote, “but culturally we were nonetheless attracted by the vitality of American popular life, indeed to the domain of mass culture itself.” If the ULR group and similar collectives shared an “anxiety about the stupendous power of the booming consumer capitalism of post-war America,” they were also united by an appreciation for the ways the “vitality and raucousness of American culture certainly loosened England's tight-lipped, hierarchical class cultures and carried inside it possibilities – or the collective dream? – for a better future, which we felt was a serious political loss to deny.” Not unrelatedly, by the 1960s and 1970s, cultural studies and certain quarters of American intellectual life were proceeding along comparable tracks. Many American scholars and at least some working in cultural studies moved toward social history that emphasized the “hidden experiences of subordinated groups and classes.” Undertaken in concert with the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, this version of social history would ramify widely, furnishing the very questions and analytic habits of many fields, not least American studies.

scholarly journals La crisis del comando en el cine norteamericano de guerra submarina en los períodos de posguerra: los casos de Run Silent Run Deep (Robert Wise, 1958) y Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, 1995)

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-72
Author(s):  
Francisco Trujillo García-Ramos ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North American ◽  
United States Navy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Story Line ◽  
The North ◽  
Narrative Process ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Relationship

The command crisis as a story line has been used in many references of the cinema war genre throughout years, but it is in the stories framed under the surface of the sea where it can reach its greatest destabilization capacity. The films of the subgenre suggested to exemplify this study are the North American Run Silent Run Deep (Robert Wise, 1958) and Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, 1995). Both films were produced during a post-war era and narrate the rivalry of a commander and his executive officer in wartime submarines of the United States Navy. Commanding problems severely affect the ecosystem of the ships, creating a struggle for control during patrol. By means of observation, the relationship between History and these films will be analysed, as much as the strategy and narrative process with the objective of verifying keys in the use of the plot.

scholarly journals (New) Ecological Problems: Post-pandemic Climate Change Remains an Oceania Existential Threat

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Change Strategies ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Mining Areas ◽  
The North ◽  
Ecological Problems

Environmental damage, climate change, and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging, expansion of mining areas, pollution of water sources, overfishing, trade-in protected wildlife continue to happen, and the scale is even greater. Meanwhile, climate change is increasingly visible and impacting communities in urban to rural areas. Coastal cities in the United States to coastal villages in the north of Java and the microstates of the South Pacific facing the real impact of sea-level rise. Disasters that occur bring not only material losses but also socio-economic consequences for people affected. The emergence of new ecological problems is being faced by humanity. The complexity of ecological problems is nonlinear, turbulent, and dynamic. This was the theme of the panel (New) Ecological Problems: Defining the Relationship between Humans and the Environment at the Symposium on Social Science 2020. This paper, part of the SOSS 2020 panel on ecological problems, argues for countries to overhaul and “reset” their public health and economic systems to ones based on strengthening multilateral institutions and collaboration, and to abandon or seriously curtail neoliberalism models that have failed. It also argues that the profession of journalism also needs to approach climate change strategies with as much urgency as for addressing the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The current crisis is a precursor to further crises unless the globe changes its ways to heal both people and the planet.

scholarly journals La Embajada de Estados Unidos en Madrid y la arquitectura moderna de posguerra

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-89
Author(s):  
Ismael Amarouch García
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
The North ◽  
International Style ◽  
Post War ◽  
General Aspects ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Construction Works

Between 1950 and 1955, the United States Embassy in Madrid was planned and built on the former Huerta de Cánovas estate. This building has already been studied in its pioneering and controversial implementation in the Paseo de la Castellana. Some reference has also been made to the link between Mariano Garrigues, the Spanish architect who directed the construction works, and North America. This article goes deeper, however, into some issues that have not yet been explained; in particular, the aim is to reveal how a prototype of the International Style was adapted to local circumstances. For this purpose, both foreign sources related to the North American architectural office (Foreign Building Operations, FBO) and local sources related to the Spanish architect are used. Likewise, graphic analyses are carried out to complement the available information and to focus on aspects of the site, construction, and spatial organization. The analysis is not limited to the general aspects of the building. Its link with post-war modern architecture is increased with considerations of site, structure and furnishing. The final assessment falls somewhere between absolute adherence to modern ideals and local mediation.

scholarly journals Marxist theories of international relations at the beginning of 21st century

2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 285-308
Author(s):  
Marina Kostic
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
World Order ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
The Creation

After one hundred years since the Russian October Revolution, it seems appropriate to consider and point out some of the key topics, dilemmas, and theoretical considerations of Marxist theories of International Relations. The cyclical movement of global capitalism in the period from 1990 to 2017 contributed to the revival of the Marxist thesis about capitalism and the search for ways to overcome it. Most of the solutions are connected to the more equal distributions of capital and competition, less in socialist revolutions. That is the reason why in the future we can expect more attention given to the original Marx?s theses. Research questions that Marxist thought in international relations today consider are: Redirection of the focus from the East-West relations to the North-South relations, which are characterized by inequality, injustice, dependency and exploitation of the countries of the South by the developed countries of the North; The changed role of the state - the transformation of state functions to fit the needs of transnational capital (transnational state); The combination of force and consent in the creation of a hegemonic world order; The global economic crisis of 2007-8, the crisis of the Euro?zone in 2011 and the crisis of the developing economies, especially after 2015; Application of austerity measures in response to said crisis, which leads to the impoverishment of the already poor, and a large gap between rich and poor; Strengthening anti-capitalist and ?anti?system? organization, movements and political parties, and their unification at the international level, as well as their links with countries such as Russia and Latin American countries. The study of these questions is addressed through the Neo-Marxist and the Post-Marxist approaches, with additional consideration of the ?New Marxism?, which represents a re-reading of Marx, his texts that have not been analysed by now and attitudes toward the non-European area. A response to the current crisis is such that the policies of states are being nationalized and tend to become the opposite of what was advocated at the end of the Cold War by the leaders of liberalism. By 2016, such a shift is made that the leader of globalization and the spread of international organizations - the United States - have found itself in the opposite position of what it stood for - open markets, democracy and integration. China is trying to bring other countries in the fight against climate change and supports the continued functioning of the global open market and Russia is becoming a major initiator of the creation of new international institutions in the Asian, European and Latin American continent. The struggle between these new contradictions can only be overcome in some new synthesis - the new world order.

International Relations in Africa in Theory and Practice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Western World ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Developmental States ◽  
The North

One-quarter of the world’s states are African and can contribute to international relations theory and practice as the North enters a period of ambivalence and begins to retreat from positive global engagement. Each actor based in or concerned about the African continent, state and non-state alike, advances a foreign policy to reflect its interests, often in coalition with others. East-South relations and a non-Western world, as well as Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa, are important in international development and emerging powers in Africa. The diversion away from international order and peace of the United States under President Donald Trump, the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Theresa May, and the European Union, the latter characterized by unanticipated immigration and endless Eurozone crises, can be positive for African agency and development if the continent can seize the unprecedented space to advance its own developmental states and regionalisms. Such possibilities of Africa’s enhanced prospects are situated in terms of a changing global political economy in which new economies, companies, and technologies are emerging along with contrary, nontraditional security threats. In response, novel forms of transnational “network” governance are being conceived and charted to advance sustainable developmental states and regionalisms through innovative foreign policy stances outside established, but increasingly dysfunctional and ossified, interstate institutions.

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

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