Critique Of Political Economy Research Articles

The International and Local Politics of the Rural Environmental Registry: Brazil's Green Currency

ABSTRACTSince the 2000s, rural elites have engaged in ‘greening’ the Amazon extractive frontier. Private and state‐led initiatives have consolidated the agro‐industrial system by incentivizing compliance and effectively legalizing deforestation. Brazil's Rural Environmental Registry (Cadastro Ambiental Rural — CAR) is fundamental to ‘sustainable producer’ initiatives and international and local carbon markets. Since its emergence at the end of the 1990s, it has been funded and promoted by European countries and the World Bank through the G7 Pilot Programme for the Conservation of Brazilian Rainforests and the Amazon Fund. This analysis draws on a critical political economy approach and several years of multi‐site interviews, participant observation and archival research to illuminate how donor and recipient agencies have sustained territorial and georeferencing technologies as an international state project to enable the green economy, despite political shifts and the inherent contradictions of this instrument. The article shows how ecological modernization technologies enable the ‘greening’ of agro‐industry expansion while exacerbating land conflicts and marginalizing Indigenous and traditional peoples’ collective land rights.

On the Political Economy of Link-based Web Search

Web search engines arguably form the most popular data-driven systems in contemporary society. They wield a considerable power by functioning as gatekeepers of the Web. Since the late 1990s, search engines have been dominated by the paradigm of link-based web search. In this paper, we critically analyse the Political Economy of the paradigm of link-based web search, drawing upon insights and methodologies from Critical Political Economy. We illustrate how link-based web search has led to phenomena that favour capital through long-term structural changes on the Web, and how it has led to accentuating unpaid digital labour and ecologically unsustainable practices, among several others. We show how con-temporary observations on the degrading quality of link-based web search can be traced back to the internal contradictions with the paradigm, and how such socio-technical phenom-ena may lead to an eventual disutility of the link-based model. Our contribution is on enhanc-ing the understanding of the Political Economy of link-based web search, and laying bare the phenomena at work, towards catalysing the search for alternative models of content organi-sation and search on the Web.

Ideology at Work? Rethinking Reproduction

The low value of reproductive labor, and the related “crisis of care,” are often attributed to gendered attitudes about work. This article traces this explanation to the attempted synthesis of Marxist and feminist theories of ideology in the 1970s and offers a sympathetic critique with implications for both contemporary theories of labor and the “new ideology critique.” It reconstructs the explanatory role of ideology in feminist analyses of unwaged housework and tracks its uptake in theories of “reproductive labor” more broadly, via what I call the “naturalization thesis.” While these analyses have been influential, I show that they do not provide a convincing account of either gender oppression or the low value of reproductive labor. I offer an alternative explanation for the latter rooted in labor processes and patterns of capital accumulation and argue for the reintegration of ideology critique with the critique of political economy.

Ruy Fausto, normatividade e anti-normatividade

The article examines Ruy Fausto’s concept of interversion in view of the debate on the meaning of ethical-moral normativity in a critical theory of capitalism. Taking the Marxian critique of political economy as reference, the text is divided into two main parts. In the first, the normative and anti-normative interpretations are characterized as an antinomy. In the second, it is argued that, based on Fausto’s particular reception and use of the Hegelian dialectic, his reading of the interversion offers an original solution to the debate.

Reconceptualizing Security and Political Economy in the Modern Middle East

Abstract We prioritize reorienting prevailing concepts of security within the contemporary Middle East and North Africa through a critical political economy framework. The practices of both waging war and preparing for war – that is, war-making – generate profound consequences for regional societies, but they also remain poorly understood. We advance a more reflexive paradigm that emphasizes how political actors define notions of security on their own terms, and then make appropriate choices based upon their own understandings. In turn, those choices can generate long-term implications, which must be carefully understood by exploring how governments and social communities respond to conflict.

The ultimate political question? Realism and omnicide

ABSTRACT Realist political theory purports to prioritize the goals of order, security, and ‘political survival’. In spite of these concerns, it has not yet addressed the growing risk that humanity might be lurching towards self-extinction. This contribution considers what omnicidal risk means for contemporary realism, making two arguments. First, we argue that omnicidal risk poses a political problem in a distinctly realist sense of the term. In doing so, we demonstrate that omnicide is a relevant concern for all realists, while ordorealists in particular hold an unrecognized commitment to mitigating omnicidal risk. Second, by demonstrating the extent to which capitalism can be considered a cause of contemporary omnicidal risk, we argue that this concern and commitment should draw realists – and, in particular, ordorealists – into a critique of contemporary political economy. Realism should not ignore omnicidal risk; instead, its consideration should work to radicalize realism.

Interview with Werner Bonefeld: Open Marxism and the Critique of Society

Werner Bonefeld is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of York, UK, and Adjunct Professor at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU (Ljubljana, Slovenia). He has published on topics as varied as the development of the British state during the 1980s and 1990s, Europe’s monetary union, ordoliberalism, and Marx’s critique of political economy. A ground-breaking critical theorist, Bonefeld’s contribution to an ‘open’ Marxism developed a rigorous critique of capitalist social relations without omitting the significant themes of lived experience and class antagonism. The following interview marks the publication of a recent monograph titled A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion: Wealth, Suffering, Negation. Bonefeld discusses his reading of Frankfurt School critical theory and its relation to heterodox and open Marxist social theory with Alex Alvarez Taylor, whose research focuses on early critical theory.

The Essence of Marxism and Anarchism from the Labour Theory of Value to the Critique of Political Economy

ABSTRACT The ills of global capitalism, the critical issues of climate change, global warming, and environmental justice, have all collectively continued to generate concerns, with the world itching for alternate ideological solutions. This article aims to provide a comprehensive critique of the amalgamation of Anarchism and Marxism as a theoretical framework for addressing contemporary world development challenges. While both ideologies share common ground in their critique of capitalism, this paper argues that their synthesis even though may fall short in adequately addressing the complexities of today's globalised and interconnected world might offer a realistic pathway to the contradictions of capitalism. To this end, this study interrogates the Marx-Proudhon debate on three major areas of differences or similarities, namely, (1) The Tyranny of Exchange Value; (2) Crisis in the Evolution of Capitalism and (3) Method of intervention; and their response to contemporary challenges. The method of analysis is essentially historical, providing an in-depth critique of the theoretical standpoint of both ideologies. We conclude that scholarly solutions to current global challenges should be approached with a view to adequately situate them within the ideological context. Thus a return to the Marx-Proudhon debate provides a path forward in our search for alternatives to capital.

Exploring the Intersection of Communication and Labor: A Dialogue with Dan Schiller

Abstract This paper came out of a research seminar at Tsinghua University. On November 16, 2023, Yuezhi Zhao, a communication scholar who studies the political economy of communication from a transcultural context, invited Dan Schiller, a critical political economy scholar and historian of information and communications to her doctoral course entitled A Global History of Journalism and Communication Theory at Tsinghua University, for an open dialogue. In this lively scholarly exchange, professors and student participants explored a wide range of issues at the nexus of communication, labor, and geopolitical dynamics from both historical and contemporary perspectives. In part 1 and 2, Yuezhi Zhao invited Dan Schiller to reflect on the intersections of communication and labor in the digital age; In Part 3, Dan Schiller responded to a list of questions submitted anonymously by the class ahead of time and identified by students on the spot.

Comments on David McNally’s “Marx on Colonization and Bonded Labor”

These are comments on David McNally’s 2024 David Gordon Memorial Lecture. In this response, I point to the immanent critique present in Professor McNally’s remarks. I then show the potential usefulness of immanent critique for an engagement with neoclassical economics, and I consider the consequences for Marxist economics of characterizing the critique of political economy as a critical theory of economic categories. JEL Classification: B14, B51, B24

Climate Science, the Military-Industrial Complex, and the Political Economy of Knowledge-Making: Beyond the Capitalist Ontology of Nature?

Climate science is one of the main political drivers of today's world, informing critical scholars and social movements alike. Yet, many scholars associate it with projects of domination (the Cold War, capitalism, imperialism) while relying on it to elaborate a critique of capital. This article proposes a new historical account of climate science. Drawing from archival findings, interpreted with historical sociology combined with the critique of political economy, the article shows that a conflict developed at the National Academy of Sciences during the Vietnam War, between scientists who wanted atmospheric research to be under the auspices of NATO, as proposed by the "father of the H-bomb" Edward Teller, and others who favored global cooperation, led by meteorologist Jule Charney. The resolution of this conflict had consequences for both the institutional framework and the content of what is today understood as climate science. It is argued that this conflict was part of the social movements of the time, and had momentous consequences for knowledge-making by rejecting the association of atmospheric science with the military-industrial complex, an essential component of capitalist accumulation. Most notably, it resulted in the conceptualization of the atmosphere as a commons, which undermines its treatment as a sink, private property, or commodity, and qualifies it as a potential informer of the allocation of resources in an emancipated society. Therefore, the article sheds light on the resonance between climate science and current social movements and critical scholars: the constitution of climate science was in mediation with a worldview that was critical of aspects of the capitalist political economy and its ontology of nature.

Critical approaches to geoeconomics: Taiwan’s position/ing in the global chip war

This essay argues that a meshing of the genealogical analysis proposed by critical geoeconomics with the critical (geo)political economy approach is well-equipped to expound on the proliferation of geostrategic thinking and practices in the contemporary era marked by the ‘great power rivalry’ or the ‘new Cold War’. To elaborate on this proposition, I examine the rise of global strategic-technologic competition centring on semiconductor production and Taiwan’s position and positioning in such dynamics.

Sabotaging ordoliberal communitarianism: for a critical discursive political economy of ‘the local community’ in neoliberal Europe

The commentary aims to provoke a discussion in Critical Political Economy (CPE) about local articulations of neoliberalism, proposing the concept of ordoliberal communitarianism as a theoretical practice to sabotage the hegemonic essentialisation of ‘the local community’ within the context of EU neoliberal constitutionalism. This conceptual proposal is a plea to critical scholars who assume a pre-existing local community to instead enquire from whom, how and why the necessity of appealing to ‘the local community’ emerges to strategically essentialise socio-historically contingent political forms. To support this argument, I first discuss the relationship between ‘the community’ and the global political economy by combining sociology of knowledge, CPE and governmentality studies. This discussion leads to a consideration of ordoliberal communitarianism as produced by and through dominant institutions and translating hegemonic concepts in and through local contexts. As an indicative case emerging from research on the interpellation of local communities in the current Italian competitive strategy, I offer some notes for a history of Italian ordoliberal communitarianism as a transnational socio-historical experience to investigate the formation of local developmental coalitions led by EU governance. The commentary concludes by recalling the role of critical scholars in semantically sabotaging the hegemonic essentialisation of ‘the local community’.

Baudrillard's Critical Theory of Political Economy

Baudrillard is a famous French postmodern philosopher with a vast array of theories and writings. Based on Baudrillard's reflection on Marx's critique of political economy, the article takes the social and ideological origins of the theory of mimesis as the starting point of the study. Unlike Marx, Baudrillard's theory of mimesis involves a 'model' that appears as the initial form of the mimesis. Baudrillard's argument that the proliferation of mimesis and simulation has led to the demise of the real, and that the real world can be produced through modelling without the need for prototypes, adds a new dimension to reflections on Marx's critical theory of society, and expands the horizons and methodologies of contemporary Marxist research. The paper traces the premise and development of the theory of mimesis by analysing the turn towards consumer society, and presents the specifics of mimesis theory as a whole by keeping in mind Baudrillard's principle of symbolic exchange and his reflections on modern technology. This paper analyses the concept of mimesis based on Baudrillard's later theories, and attempts to explain the specific connotations of mimesis and its related concepts. This paper focuses on three related concepts of mimesis: "mimesis", "hyperreal" and "implosion", and explains in detail the differences between these four concepts on the basis of Baudrillard's work. Based on Baudrillard's work, the differences between these four concepts are explained in detail. Explores the symbolic order, social entities, and media influences in which the concept of "mimesis" occurs.

Towards a degrowth transition: bringing interests back in

ABSTRACT Degrowth has become particularly important in the environmental movement in recent years. However, there is no consensus on how to achieve the shift from a growth-oriented society to a degrowth-oriented society. We suggest that a productive means of addressing this issue is by turning to debates concerning processes of institutional change and sustainability transitions. This approach has two key implications. On the one hand, accounts of degrowth transitions resonate with broader theories of institutional change. For instance, some, in common with historical institutionalism, emphasise the path dependencies of existing growth-oriented institutions while others, in common with discursive institutionalism, highlight the role of ideas in facilitating the creation of a degrowth-oriented society. On the other hand, there are serious limitations to these theories of institutional change. From the perspective of critical political economy, they fail to situate institutions in the broader context of capitalist power dynamics and thus do not engage with social interests. On the basis of two case studies, we argue that degrowth needs to address the question ‘who wants degrowth?’, or how its demands advance the interests of the working class, with its different intersections, in the contemporary moment.

Critical Reflection on Economic Categories: An Examination of Proudhon in The Poverty of Philosophy

Constructing theory through the critique of political economy, the central aspect of its critique of political economy is the critique of economic categories. In the text of The Poverty of Philosophy, the critique of Proudhon s economic categories reveals in depth the contradictions, subjectivity, and ideological falsehoods within his economic theories, and reveals the antagonistic nature of the economic categories of class society, placing the life of the categories in the changing structure of the productive forces and the relations of production, and laying the theoretical foundations for the establishment of economic science.

Global iPhone Local Labour: Exploring ICT Production, Labour and Cultural Production

A theory of value pertinent to the contemporary iPhone era focuses on formal and informal labour circuits. This study extends this framework by examining a labour dispute in an iPhone factory near Bangalore, delving into its dissemination through media and the broader critical political economy surrounding the recent iPhone production in India. Furthermore, it incorporates a geographical perspective into the circuit framework to illustrate the movement of capital and labour in Bangalore, rekindling discussions on core–periphery dynamics in the context of capital and labour migration. Further, this research builds upon the typography of worker-generated content by illustrating a specific category of such content within the iPhone labour dispute. Utilising a critical political economy of media approach, this article aims to assess the broader implications of the updated framework and to open new avenues for research within the emerging field of information communication technologies, cultural production and labour.

Introduction: Marxifying IR, IRifying Marxism

Although the neglect of Marxism has been a pervasive characteristic of IR theory, there has been a marked revival of interest in Marxism. Marx’s materialist insights into the general historical development of societies, as well as his critique of capitalism and political economy, have served as alternative starting points for different critical approaches to IR and offers a welcome alternative to neorealism, constructivism, and poststructuralism that have dominated IR for several decades. Marxism provides a redefinition of IR by focusing on changes in material circumstances, historical conditions, and society instead of assuming unchanging and fixed structures of anarchy or the state. Marx’s analysis and insights into the dynamics of international relations have become even more important given the ongoing crisis of neoliberal capitalism, the rise of authoritarianism, right-wing nationalist populisms, and the racial and gendered subordinations accompanying them pointing to the importance of Marxifying IR and IRifying Marxism.

AI governance in India – law, policy and political economy

Artificial Intelligence technologies have elicited a range of policy responses in India, particularly as the Government of India attempts to position and project the country as a global leader in the production of AI technologies. Policy responses have ranged from providing public infrastructure to enable market-led AI production, to nationalising datasets in an effort to enable Big Data analysis through AI. This paper examines the recent history of AI policy in India from a critical political economy perspective, and argues that AI policy and governance in India constructs and legitimises a globally-dominant paradigm of informational capitalism, based on the construction of data as a productive resource for an information-based economic production, and encouraging self-regulation of harmful impacts by firms, even as it attempts to secure a strong hand for the state to determine, both through law and infrastructure, how such a market is structured and to what ends.

Hegel's Theory of Finite Cognition and Marx's Critique of Political Economy

Abstract The article examines the role of Hegel's theory of finite cognition in Marx's critique of classical political economy. I argue that Hegel's distinction of finite cognition between analytic and synthetic in the Science of Logic constitutes the methodological framework through which Marx delineates the different stages of the development of political economy. Focusing on the Grundrisse, I reveal the Hegelian influence behind Marx's statements on previous political economists’ methods. Thus, Marx's immanent critique of the classical political economy is construed as undertaken from the level of the systematic dialectical method of Capital, and is modelled on Hegel's immanent critique of analytic and synthetic cognition from the perspective of absolute cognition. In this context, and focusing on Marx's critique of Ricardo's method, I argue that the latter's limitations are associated with the deficiencies of synthetic cognition as presented by Hegel. Therefore, the article sheds light on an important yet underexplored topic of the Hegel-Marx relationship. By indicating the centrality of Hegel's theory of finite cognition in Marx's methodological underpinnings, the article provides a new perspective on Hegel-Marx scholarship.