Capitalist Mode Of Production Research Articles

The Materiality of Fishing, Property, and Labor in Western Massachusetts

This article explores the complexities of property and competing regimes of value in the colonial and Federal periods. The end of the 18th century saw a growing privatization of previously common resources as part of the emergence of a broadly, if unevenly, constituted capitalist mode of production in western Massachusetts. Excavations at the Frary House/Barnard Tavern in rural Deerfield, Massachusetts, provide a seemingly mundane index of this broad social change in the differential presence of fish scales in trash pits at the site. Anadromous fish have been a means of subsistence for indigenous communities who lived along the Connecticut River valley for thousands of years, but following English colonization and conquest, they became caught up in broader anxieties and struggles over the nature of work, property, and social and material value. This article documents some of these struggles in the region, as a reminder that consumption and subsistence are never isolated from broader social and structural processes.

Algunas consideraciones sobre el valor y su relación con la democracia y otros fetiches capitalistas

The paper tries to show the binding relationship that exists in the mode of capitalist production between merchandise, value and profit, as its basic categories, and politics as an artificially separated sphere of society. This is intended to reveal on the one hand the false appearance of the autonomy of politics in these societies, and on the other the illusory forms of democracy that accompany him, because the demands of value made as capital prevail above any social, political, moral, aesthetic or religious considerations.Since the objective possibilities of gaining surplus value and profitability due to capital overaccumulation are currently stuck, a decline in the democratic realizations –and specially in the options of reformism- in the political sphere are given in correspondence, as the later manifests itself as an expression of the law of value.

As relações que envolvem o estado, as classes sociais e a escola pública sob a égide do capitalismo neoliberal

O trabalho apresenta uma discussão sobre as relações que envolvem o Estado, as classes sociais e a escola pública no Brasil, no contexto dominado pelo capitalismo neoliberal. Destaca as principais características políticas, econômicas e sociais dessa conjuntura, para, em seguida, tratar das políticas direcionadas à escola pública, com foco na Educação Básica, na Reforma do Ensino Médio e no Projeto de Lei da Escola Sem Partido, evidenciando a convergência de princípios, visando a manutenção da hegemonia neoliberal. Trata-se de um estudo bibliográfico, fundamentado em pensadores que procuram compreender e analisar o Estado articulado às relações sociais, políticas, econômicas e educacionais, entendendo-o como uma dimensão fundamental do modo de produção capitalista, que expressa as relações e os antagonismos de classes. Parte do pressuposto de que, na sociedade capitalista, o suporte político do Estado procura complementar o sistema do capital, criando condições para a manutenção e reprodução do mesmo. Isso se justifica, à medida que, para prosseguir com sua expansão, impulsionada pela acumulação, o capital pressupõe a subordinação da sociedade aos seus objetivos, nas funções produtivas, distributivas e reprodutivas. Conclui que a Reforma do Ensino Médio e a Lei da Escola sem partido compõem algumas das ações do Estado no seu objetivo de manter as contradições das classes sociais existentes, favorecendo a ordem burguesa na dominação da classe trabalhadora, que tem, na escola pública e, especialmente na Educação Básica, muitas vezes, o único espaço de acesso à cultura e aos conhecimentos acumulados historicamente pela humanidade, restringindo, concretamente, o seu direito à educação.

What is critical about critical librarianship?

Library work structures intellectual worlds as library workers collect, organize, make accessible, and preserve materials for use. This work is not neutral. Libraries, like all institutions, are produced in and through systems marked by racism, patriarchy, and capitalist modes of production. Critical librarianship offers a framework for thinking about our work that asks how library structures came to be and what ideologies underpin them. Viewing librarianship through this frame allows us to imagine new and better worlds on our way to making them.

Quarenta anos de Escola Francesa da Regulação: entre o marxismo e o institucionalismo histórico

Resumo A escola francesa da regulação se originou em meados da década de 1970, tendo como objetivo principal desenvolver e atualizar a análise de Marx do modo de produção capitalista para compreender as transformações econômicas do século XX. Essa é a origem dos conceitos de regime de acumulação, modo de regulação, formas institucionais e fordismo. A partir da década de 1980, a abordagem tornou-se menos próxima do marxismo e mais preocupada em elaborar uma economia histórica e institucional. As décadas de 1980 e 1990 foram vistas como um período de continuidade da crise do fordismo. Foi somente a partir do ano 2000 que os autores regulacionistas vislumbraram a possibilidade de existência de um regime de acumulação liderado pelas finanças, que teria entrado em crise em 2008. A dificuldade de compreender o capitalismo posterior ao fordismo está associada a uma visão teórica inadequada acerca das características básicas do modo de produção.

Projetos em disputa: políticas públicas contraditórias no âmbito da Educação Profissional no Brasil

Este artigo tem como objetivo fazer um breve resgate histórico de algumas políticas públicas de educação profissional no Brasil, revelando suas contradições. Parte-se das políticas educacionais dos anos de 1990 que estabeleceram a separação obrigatória entre o ensino médio e educação profissional, intensificado o caráter instrumental no campo da educação profissional. Nesta perspectiva educacional, percebe-se um processo de inclusão excludente, visto a sua desqualificação, que inclui no mercado de trabalho mas exclui as possibilidades que o sujeito tem de adquirir uma educação onilateral e politécnica. Na realização desta pesquisa, utilizou-se a pesquisa bibliográfica, reunindo, analisando numa perspectiva exploratória, buscando levantar informações acerca da temática dos projetos que figuraram na história do Brasil acerca da Educação Profissional.. Desta forma, acontece uma precarização do trabalho que se legitima a partir dessa continuidade de propostas precárias de Educação Profissional. Essa precarização que assola esta modalidade, propicia uma formação fragmentária, simplista e tecnicista, proporcionando uma educação unilateral em detrimento de uma formação onilateral. Enquanto a formação omnilateral possibilita uma formação que abarca todas as dimensões do indivíduo de forma ampla, em todas as suas capacidades físicas e intelectuais, a formação unilateral fragmenta o indivíduo de forma que ele apenas seja um sujeito especializado em trabalhos manuais e favorecer o lucro destinado ao modo de produção capitalista.

Power: a Marxist view

Abstract Lukes’ Power: A Radical View is a milestone in the debate on power. First, it criticises the narrow conceptions of political sociology, which reduces power to merely interpersonal relations. Second, it suggests an enlarged ontology of power capable of dealing with social coercion and collective action. Lukes, however, seeks the causes of power in politics and society by abstracting from the economic sphere. This detaches power from exploitation and confuses the essential with the only contingent forms of power of capitalism. The economics debate is predicated on this error because mainstream economics rules out the exploitative nature of capitalist production and introduces power later only as a residual category, which might develop only out of competition. The result is a mystified conception in which social coercion is no longer visible and competition appears as power-free. My ‘Marxist view’ on power is founded on a simple idea: exploitation in the economy imposes particular forms of power and coercion in society. Therefore, in the same way as the capitalist mode of production is essentially based on exploitation so it is also based on power and coercion. The economy is not merely one of the many possible sources of power, but the sphere in which the essential forms of capitalist power are generated. Competition is not the antithesis of power but the vehicle through which exploitation imposes the essential power relations of capitalism.

The Althusser-Poulantzas Discussion on the State

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to present and criticize Althusser’s and Poulantzas’s key positions on the State and its mechanisms. To begin with there is a discussion on the notion that the State is an aggregation of ideological and repressive apparatuses and on the position according to which the State is an instrument. This is followed by a rejection of Althusser’s and Poulantzas’s claims in the light of the thesis that the State is the material outcome of a correlation of forces in the context of a specific mode of production but that there is a limit to the changes that may be made within the capitalist mode of production.

Kinematografija i arhitektura - moderna percepcija

Walter Benjamin's essay on cinema expounds his prognostic values. By the time he wrote this article his critique of the capitalistic mode of production showed the direction in which capitalism was progressing: towards an increasing intensity in exploitation of the proletariat, but also its own decline. We are interested in these prognoses that affirm the transformation of art and its function, and which call our attention to the loss of transcendence and the decline of the aura of the work of art. At the same time, they show possibilities that affirm the continuity of art with a different role and the dislocation of the aura. The form of art that is suitable to this reflection is cinema and the parallel drawn by the philosopher between cinema and architecture. Our intention is to reflect on this parallel and the urban interventions as artistic forms of aesthetic modernity: that is, as products of this modernity that at the same time indicate the way the world is given to us and understood by us. We will also reflection cinema and theatre indications as a way to surpass corporal determinations that are imposed on us.

ПОМІЩИЦЬКІ МАЄТКИ ПОДІЛЛЯ В ПЕРІОД СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ЗРУШЕНЬ В РОСІЙСЬКІЙ ІМПЕРІЇ У ПЕРШІЙ ПОЛОВИНІ XIX СТОЛІТТЯ

The article analyzes the development of commodity-money relations in the landowners' households of Podillia and characterizes its socio-economic consequences. The result of involvement of manor estates into the system of capitalist relations, the destruction of natural economy took place with the subsequent use of manufactory production and free-hired labor, which led to the intensification of the economic life of the region and the corresponding social changes. The emergence of a deep contradiction in this process became one of the important factors for the abolition of serfdom in Russia. The purpose of this research is to study the development of commodity-money relations in the landlords' estates of Podillia and to characterize its socio-economic consequences. Research methodology . The research is based on the principles of historicism, comprehensiveness, objectivity and consistency. Also, in the presentation of the material we applied general scientific (analysis, synthesis, elements of the statistical method) and special-historical (problem-chronological, historical-typological, historical-system) theoretical methods. Scientific novelty lies in the attempt to comprehensively research the situation of the landlord estates of Podillia in the afore-mentioned period. Conclusions . Commodity-money relations found a further development in the landowners' estates of Podillia in the first half of the XIX century, which was destroying subsistence farming opening the way to the capitalist mode of production. At the same time, this led to the intensification of the economic life of the region with the corresponding social changes.

Diversidade de gênero na sociabilidade capitalista patriarcal: as identidades trans em perspectiva

Resumo À luz de uma perspectiva feminista e crítico-dialética, este artigo, fruto de uma pesquisa teórica, busca situar o campo da diversidade de gênero na totalidade das relações sociais, demarcando-se que são relações de classe e de gênero enoveladas. Para isso, trata da centralidade do trabalho a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica sobre a ontologia do trabalho e suas novas determinações sociais pelo modo de produção capitalista, expondo alguns fundamentos do capitalismo e refletindo acerca da simbiose entre capitalismo-patriarcadoracismo estruturante das relações sociais brasileiras com base na leitura de Heleieth Saffioti. Com o presente artigo pretendemos desenvolver uma reflexão marxista para as questões trans, levando o olhar marxista para os estudos sobre diversidade de gênero, que têm nas teorias culturalistas e pós-estruturalistas a tônica da discussão e, ao mesmo tempo, fazendo penetrar o debate das identidades trans nos estudos marxistas.

Cooperation against Capitalism’s Biases. Workers-Recuperated Enterprises in Italy during the Great Recession

This paper analyzes the case of workers’ buyout, which has emerged with increasing evidence in Italy over the last ten years, in order to reflect on sustainable alternatives to the capitalist mode of production. Worker-recuperated bankrupted companies, generally defined as recovered factories, have been linked to the Argentinean movement of empresas recuperadas, which produced in the early 2000s a strong social upheaval and a proliferation of companies occupied and restarted for production by the workers themselves. Italian and European recovered factories are, however, mostly the result of a workers’ buyout, an institutional process which allows the employees of a company in crisis to acquire the same by converting their own mobility allowances in share capital. The thesis that we intend to support here is that workers’ buyout provides an excellent example of the resilient capacity of individuals to react to crisis, partly counteracting the decline in employment levels and preserving their livelihoods, as well as a prospective alternative to the capitalist mode of production.

Оппозиционность и квазиоппозиционность «четвертой власти»

The article considers the oppositional and quasi-oppositional or almost oppositional potential of the modern Russian media as the fourth power. The authors come to the conclusion that the modern Russian media sources’ oppositionism does not stem from the illusion that they are the fourth estate, but from the role they play in the system of the relations between the state and the civil society, between the individuals as the members of the civil society and the individuals as the members of the state. The oppositionism of the media is the reflection and expression, and simultaneously it is the symptom of the civil society’s oppositionism. It is its dissatisfaction with the system of the relations that are generated by the modern capitalist mode of production which turns a person into the slave of his needs which are cultivated and imposed on him by the production and the trade. The expansion of the unnecessary wants’ supply includes the media in this whirlpool of the unnecessary for the individual goods’, services’, thoughts’, ideas’ production and by doing so it does become counterpart and hostile to the society. The antagonism of the commercial media towards the society revives the public media, which in reality and according to its social content is now becoming oppositional, or euphemistically described as “the rose among the thorns of the modern times’ morality”. The oppositionism of the emerging media and the quasioppositionism of the commercialized media which, in fact, are cultivating the individual’s selfish opposition towards the civil society, do find its limits of the opposition in the different grounds. The first one finds its limit in the oppositionism of the society itself, in the needs of the people for the change of the existing relations between the authorities and the civil society, the second one does it in the dividends received from the false oppositionism.

PRODUÇÃO DE MASCULINIDADE EM MATÉRIAS DA REVISTA VIP

Entende-se a mídia como importante veiculadora de discursos que produzem subjetividades no contemporâneo, compondo “verdades” que delimitam nossa compreensão do âmbito cultural. Neste sentido, destacam-se as formulações midiáticas acerca do gênero e da sexualidade, que estabelecem os limites para a compreensão de performatividades de gênero inteligíveis ou ininteligíveis na cultura. Assim, revistas voltadas ao público masculino são elementos culturais de amplo valor simbólico, que nos auxiliam a compreender os atributos que se intercalam na composição de ideais de masculinidade em nosso meio social. Deste modo, o presente trabalho aborda a construção de padrões de masculinidade no discurso da página virtual da revista VIP. Para tanto, foram categorizadas 240 matérias da revista. Em seguida, foi realizada uma análise qualitativa baseada nos Estudos Críticos do Discurso de duas publicações classificadas com maior número de categorias na etapa anterior. Desta forma, discutem-se os ideais de masculinidade propagados pela revista, seu direcionamento ao público baseado em recortes específicos de classe e raça, além da relação a instituições como a heterossexualidade compulsória e o modo de produção capitalista.

Normative und rechtsstaatliche Kapitalismuskritiken und ihre Verdrängung bei Marx

AbstractThe essay is a critical revision of various of Marx’s approaches in his analysis of capitalism in “Das Kapital”. One can distinguish immanent, normative critiques from transcendental and objectivistic ones. The review of the normative standards used in each case leads to the questions of how Marx determined and used the relationships of justice and law and the capitalist mode of production. Orthodox Marxist views (most recently C. Menke) claim that Marx did not criticise capital as unjust and understood the law of capital only as private law that stabilised domination. Against this, it is shown that he certainly bases his “critical presentation” on an (almost Kantian) constitutional (“rechtsstaatliches”) concept of private law and public law. Thus the “popular prejudice” of “human equality”, defined by Marx as an epochal and systematic condition of the capitalist exchange of goods, becomes apparent as a covert reference to the historical (America, French Revolution),public-lawdeclarations of human rights. And in the chapter “Struggle for the length of the working day” Marx presents the decisions of this dispute between “equal rights” first and foremost in the systematic historical actions of the constitutional powers (legislature, executive and judiciary). At the same time, however, he attempts to ironise and defame this public-law and deliberative, democratic dispute and then to misinterpret it as a violent “civil war”. Because Marx in his further presentation ignores this legal-democratic dispute, including a potential human-rights critique and (possible!) future regulation of capitalism, focussing instead on objectivist concepts of history and development, he can only insufficiently grasp the still challenging relationship between democracy and capitalism.

The transformative power of foreign direct investment in Ukraine’s market for corporate control

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the marketization of corporate control in Ukraine. To date, sceptical forecasts have identified Ukraine’s blurred EU accession perspective and the enduring volatility of its socio-economic institutions as the main cause for reluctant marketization. Drawing on a critical institutionalist approach, this article highlights the fact that Ukraine’s market for corporate control has undergone marketization to some extent. It delineates how inherent tendencies of the capitalist mode of production and the specific interplay between the state, transnational and domestic fractions of capital shape the marketization of corporate control in Ukraine. Foreign direct investment of transnational corporations from the Western European capitalist core has made Ukraine’s market for corporate control more active. Foreign investors together with domestic capital fractions successfully advocated a more market-enabling merger control regime, while the state and oligarchic capital fractions have simultaneously hampered these marketization dynamics and opted for the maintenance of market-correcting regulatory elements. A critical institutionalist approach allows us to shed light on mechanisms and dimensions which often go unnoticed in the literature on institutional change on the EU periphery.

Produções, ocupações e coexistências possíveis à conservação ambiental: uma análise na Reserva Extrativista Terra Grande-Pracuúba

O sistema capitalista, atual modelo de organização social hegemônico, além de estar vinculado a um “desenvolvimento” baseado na constituição de desigualdades sociais, lançou a sociedade numa forte crise ambiental. A partir da ecologia política, assumimos a premissa que tal crise não é ambiental, mas sim social com desdobramentos na natureza, com o modelo de produção capitalista em seu cerne. Dessa forma, apresentamos neste artigo resultados de uma pesquisa que objetivou descrever e analisar a organização socioeconômica de comunidades tradicionais inseridas na Reserva Extrativista Terra Grande-Pracuúba, bem como suas relações ambientais. Nessa trajetória, partindo-se de uma abordagem psicossocial e qualitativa, foram adotadas as técnicas ‘observação participante’ e ‘entrevistas centradas’ (focused interview). Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a técnica ‘análise de conteúdo’, tendo como ferramenta de suporte o Atlas TI. Foi possível constatar que os grupos sociais analisados exercem suas práticas econômicas - seu trabalho - de maneira espacialmente integrada às demais práticas materiais e imateriais necessárias à sua reprodução social. Tal integração favorece a manutenção ecossistêmica de seus territórios, especialmente diante da alta mobilidade do capital. Frente às possibilidades de avanço deste modelo ambientalmente predatório sobre territórios conservados, fomentar práticas produtivas tradicionais, para além de favorecer a autonomia socioeconômica e política desses povos, tende a potencializar a conservação dos ecossistemas.

A implantação do Reuni na UFF: ampliação de direitos ou precarização do ensino superior?

Neste texto discute-se elementos presentes nas transformações do ensino superior no Brasil, no contexto das modificações no modo de produção capitalista, a partir da década de 1970. Nesse novo contexto, o ensino superior foi reestruturado e passou pelos efeitos do ideário neoliberal e, consequentemente, havendo maior aproximação com os princípios do mercado. Dentre as principais mudanças nesse âmbito do ensino, o artigo terá como foco de análise a elaboração do Programa de Apoio a Planos de Reestruturação e Expansão das Universidades Federais - Reuni - implantado pelo Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação - PDE - em 2007. O Reuni tinha como objetivos principais ampliar o acesso ao ensino superior nas universidades federais, mediante a ampliação dos campi, dos novos cursos presenciais, principalmente noturnos, aumentando a oferta de vagas e a reestruturação curricular dos cursos de graduação e pós-graduação. Palavras-chave: educação superior; Reuni; UFF.

Western and/or universal social sciences?

Since several decades there is a critical debate, if social sciences are Euro-centric resp. Western. For sure, modern social sciences have emerged since the Renaissance foremost in Europe. The U.S.A. have become since a century also within the social sciences a hegemon. Nevertheless, social sciences as such are not an invention of the West. All cultures had and have some kind of social theory, which was resp. is often embedded within a religious context and framed via legal regulations. Culture is about values, and all science is part of a given culture. Probably the biggest influence on modern social sciences came from the Greek philosophy, transmitted by the Romans and the Arabs. Actually Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) can be regarded as the first social scientist, long before Machiavelli, Erasmus from Rotterdam or Hobbes, Thomas Morus et al. Humanism was the outcome.In regard to our topic Zygmunt Bauman makes a pertinent differentiation between global vs. universal. Modern globalisation is a process, which certainly dates back to early modern times, which was coined by a fundamental value change. That leads us to the question: Where do values, ethics come from? From religion, ideology, metaphysics, Enlightenment, common sense, mythology, tradition or/and science? Are there competing values? Postmodernists declare that there are no common values anymore: Everything goes! (Wittgenstein, Feyerabend, Derrida, Foucault …) But then, what about the responsibility of scientists for their writings and actions? When we discuss therefore the issue of Western versus universal structures these are always related to value systems. And we have to concede that 'universal' is an ideal, which will never be reached. Today's increasingly globalized world is dominated by the capitalist mode of production since more than 200 years, and it dominates all sciences as well. Globalisation is driven by capitalism and imperialism. Technology (namely military) allowed Western Europe to dominate nearly the whole world since, although other parts of the world were already more developed in many domains. But this is not a unilinear process, as dialectics set counterforces free.

Den italienske variant – Fra Labriola til Gramsci

THE ITALIAN CASE - FROM LABRIOLA TO GRAMSCITaking The Communist Manifesto (1848) as a point of departure, this article intends to emphasize the aporia in the works of Marx between Marx the scientist og Marx the politician, that furthermore reflects some of the main fractures between on one hand the theoretical interpretation of the capitalistic mode of production and on the other hand the strategic approaches characterizing the attempts of the European Socialist parties and the early European labour movement to overcome the ever returning crisis and the deep-rooted class conflicts. The specific Italian experiences offer the opportunity not only to discuss the philosophical and scientific contents of historical materialism but also to reactualize the political categories of democracy vis-à-vis the dictatorship of the proletariat and permanent revolution. In this respect, Antonio Labriola was a leading figure in the Italian debate of Marxism in the years between the 18th and the 19th Centuries, while Antonio Gramsci in the 1930ies revised the Marxist-Leninist tradition in the light of Fascism and the Stalinistic impasse of the Russian revolution.