July 1, 2023
There is a common misconception among critics that degrowth proponents do not engage with the question of technology, instead leaving the implementation of technological solutions to the planetary crisis to green growth advocates. Jason Hickel shows that not only is this narrative false, it obscures the possibilities for technology unfettered by capitalism.
July 1, 2023
Minqi Li asks: How can China, the world's largest energy consumer, be "de-grown"? What policies and institutions must change, and what are the potential social implications? How can social ownership of production, redistribution of wealth the working class, and democratically controlled planning bring the country closer to a zero growth scenario?
July 1, 2023
Degrowth promises to liberate society from the imperative of capital accumulation. "So how," Matthas Schmelzer and Elena Hofferberth wonder, "might planning beyond growth look?" It is not, they write, only a proposal for a postcapitalist society, but for a radical transformation of our institutions and social relations to create a more sustainable and just world.
July 1, 2023
"Degrowth" may often be associated with the left, but can also have conservative—even ecofascist—implications. What do proponents and critics mean by "degrowth"? How do these differences play out ideologically? Ying Chen writes that, for radicals, the answer is to place the economic system at the center of the degrowth narrative, thus naming the system that must be replaced with a more just and equitable socialist society.
April 1, 2023
Andy Higginbottom analyzes the influence of Ruy Mauro Marini on dependency theory and the concept of superexploitation. Marini, he explains, carried Marx's legacy forward—but there is still work to be done in the twenty-first century.
April 1, 2023
What did Marx mean in his discussion of "so-called primitive accumulation" in Capital? Here, Ian Angus argues that the term is widely misunderstood—but its illumination reveals great insight to the conditions of exploitation and expropriation.
March 1, 2023
Capital, Ben Selwyn writes, has been advancing its interests under the guise of protecting "global supply chain resilience." While those promoting the resilience agenda assert that these supply chains represent a net benefit, evidence suggests that they increase the transfer of surplus value from the Global North and, especially, in the. South.
March 1, 2023
In this reprise from October 1993, Henry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy ask: "Isn't there anyone around here who understands how this capitalist system works?"
November 1, 2022
Mariko Frame reviews The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to the World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Andrea Vetter, and Aaron Vansintjan (Verso, 2022) and its explorations of the policies, vision, and strategies for social change required for the burgeoning movement.
October 1, 2022
There is hardly any theme in Karl Marx's theoretical corpus that has garnered as much traction as his theory of fetishism. Ever since Marx introduced the term into his critique of political economy in Capital, fetishism became a field of theoretical force. While much ink has been spilled on the specific content and theoretical scope of fetishism in Capital, young Marx's initial exploration of the term has rarely enjoyed critical attention.
