Abstract If you look today at the skyline of downtowns throughout the Middle East and beyond, the joint-stock corporation has transformed the urban landscape. The corporation makes itself present through the proliferation of its urban mega-projects, including skyscrapers, downtown developments and gated communities; retail malls and artificial islands; airports and ports; and highways. Built into […]
Continue Reading
The Forum on Capital as Power presents a panel series at the Montreal 2018 Great Transition Conference, May 17-20. The panels include the following papers: 1. ‘What is Capital as Power?’ Shimshon Bichler, Israel and Jonathan Nitzan, Canada 2. ‘Capitalization, Capital Goods and the State of Capital: The Boundaries of Accumulation’ DT Cochrane, Ryerson University […]
Continue Reading
The Review of Capital as Power (RECASP) announces an annual essay prize on the subject of capital as power. The best paper will receive a prize of $2000. A prize of $500 will be awarded to the second best contribution, while a $300 prize will be given to the third best article. Submitted articles should […]
Continue Reading
ABSTRACT Existing theories of capitalism, mainstream as well as heterodox, view capitalism as a mode of production and consumption. The purpose of this ongoing speaker series is to interrogate capitalism as a mode of power. The presentations offer a power theory of personal income distribution (Blair Fix, 2:30-5:30pm, October 17, 2017), explore the power to […]
Continue Reading
This presentation will examine how and why political economic theories of mass culture have accumulated, but not settled, methodological issues about the meaning of value and the nature of productivity. Labour is certainly an important factor to any comprehensive study of capitalist mass culture, but it is our assumptions about economic productivity and not the […]
Continue Reading
The history of capitalism is a history of externalization. While benefits were tallied, costs were routinely excluded from accounts. In this presentation I examine the history of externalization as a power process. A history of brutality and destruction marketed as innovation and efficiency, externalization has been the shadowy counterpart to accumulation. From colonialism to climate […]
Continue Reading
Due in no small part to the work of Thomas Piketty, the empirical study of income inequality has flourished in the last decade. But this plethora of new data has not led to a corresponding theoretical revolution. Why? The problem, I believe, is an unwillingness to question and test the basic assumptions on which current […]
Continue Reading
First Prize $2000 Second Prize $500 Third Prize $300 The Review of Capital as Power (RECASP) announces an annual essay prize on the subject of capital as power. The best paper will receive a prize of $2000. A prize of $500 will be awarded to the second best contribution, while a $300 prize will be […]
Continue Reading
Click here for the official call. Submissions deadline: December 31st, 2016 Submission guidelines: http://www.recasp.com/contact Contact: Tim Di Muzio, University of Wollongong, Australia (tdimuzio@uow.edu.au) Alternative location: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/488/
Continue Reading
The theory of capital as power (CasP) offers a radical alternative to mainstream and Marxist theories of capitalism. It argues that capital symbolizes and quantifies not utility or labour but organized power writ large, and that capitalism is best understood and challenged not as a mode of consumption and production, but as a mode of […]
Continue Reading
A seminar presentation by Ulf Martin York University, September 27, 2:30-5:30pm 1 INTRODUCTION. – 2 POWER. From magma ontology to the dual project of modernity. Some etymology. Gestaltungsvermögen. Magma concept (Castoriadis). Magma ontology. The radical imagination of the psychic monad. The social imaginary significations (SIS) of the socio-historical. Gestaltungsvermögen, magma ontology, capital. Autonomy versus Heteronomy. […]
Continue Reading
Abstract Building on the definition of critical education residing in the crossroads of cultural politics and political economy, this theoretical article offers an inquiry into the intersection between critical education research and the central ritual of contemporary capitalism – capitalisation. This article outlines four current approaches in education research literature to the corporatisation of education. […]
Continue ReadingItalian Association for the History of Economic Thought 14th Conference – Call for Papers; 28-30 April 2016 Università del Salento (Lecce, Italy) The Italian Association for the History of Economic Thought invites historians of economic thought, economic historians, economists and interested scholars to present proposals for papers and/or sessions along the lines listed below, or […]
Continue Reading
Is economic growth a miracle of the free market? According to mainstream theory, growth is best ensured through conditions of ‘perfect competition’. However, economic growth is tightly correlated with the concentration of power in the hands of large corporations. Why? The capital as power framework provides potential answers that turn mainstream theory on its head: […]
Continue Reading
Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan. (2015). Presentation at York University. 20. October. 2015. The study of capital as power began when we were students in the 1980s and has since expanded into a broader project, involving a growing number of researchers and new areas of inquiry. The presentation explores what we have learned so far, […]
Continue Reading
Organized by the Forum on Capital as Power and sponsored by the York Department of Political Science and Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought (open to all, with refreshments) Existing theories of capitalism, mainstream as well as heterodox, view capitalism as a mode of production and consumption. This speaker series interrogates capitalism as a […]
Continue Reading
Abstract or Brief Description General Electric (GE) has demonstrated extraordinary longevity in the upper echelon of U.S. corporations. From 1925 to 2013, the company has never fallen below 10th in the rankings of firms by market capitalization. The only other firm to match this feat is the oil giant ExxonMobil. GE’s durability is remarkable given […]
Continue Reading
Blockbuster Cinema: Hollywood’s Obsession with Low Risk York University presentation by James McMahon ABSTRACT: Hollywood is obsessed with blockbusters – for 20 years the major studios have been making them, and it appears that blockbuster cinema will be with us for many years to come. This presentation will theoretically and empirically explain how blockbusters, and […]
Continue Reading
(Conference Postponed to 2016) The theory of capital as power (CasP) offers a radical alternative to mainstream and Marxist theories of capitalism. It argues that capital symbolizes and quantifies not utility or labour but organized power writ large, and that capitalism is best understood and challenged not as a mode of consumption and production, but […]
Continue Reading
Presentation at UQAM, Montreal, organized by Association des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques (AESE UQAM), March 31, 2015 There are many explanations for the recent global crisis, but most seem to agree that the origins of this crisis are largely financial: the crisis started in and was amplified by the financial sector. Of course, when economists […]
Continue Reading