Kapitalismus und Moderne

Abstract

Schlagworter: Kritik der politischen Okonomie, Kapitalismus, Moderne, Weltgesellschaft, nachholende Entwicklung, internationale Arbeitsteilung, uneinheitliche Entwicklung, Lohnarbeit, Sklaverei, Subsistenzproduktion ----- Capitalism and Modernity. Abstract This article gives a brief outline of the main features of the capitalist mode of production. Referring to Marx’s Critique of Political Economy and Max Weber, the importance of capitalist control, the (re-) organisation of production, and the expansive nature of capital are stressed, as well as the pervasive social transformations triggered by capitalism. Based on an understanding of capitalism as systematically both local and global, the process of this expansion and some experiences of late development are mapped as a means of grounding the varieties of capitalism around the globe in the relentless dynamic of capital to expand its realm. It is argued that from this, as well as from the observation that a whole range of production relations, including waged labour, subsistence production and slavery, are subsumed under capitalism, flows the constitutive heterogeneity of capitalist societies. The closing section sketches a conceptual strategy to come to terms with this complexity. A possible solution is a rethinking of the concept of „modernity“ to a social formation that encompasses a range of different modes of production and „modes of development“. In particular, this rethinking also accommodates non-capitalist social forms that are not leftovers of former times, but have risen as both complementary and competing societal systems within the context of modernity. Keywords: Critique of political economy, capitalism, modernity, world society, late development, international division of labour, uneven development, wage labour, slavery, subsistence production