ABSTRACT

Faced with a new crisis of capitalism, many scholars are now looking back to the author whose ideas were too hastily dismissed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the last decade, Marx’s Capital has received renewed academic and popular attention. It has been reprinted in new editions throughout the world and the contemporary relevance of its pages is being discussed again. Today, Marx’s analyses are arguably resonating even more strongly than they did in his own time and Capital continues to provide an effective framework to understand the nature of capitalism and its transformations.

This volume includes the proceedings of the biggest international conference held in the world to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Capital’s publication. The book is divided into three parts: I) "Capitalism, Past and Present"; II) "Extending the Critique of Capital"; III) "The Politics of Capital". It contains the contributions of globally renowned scholars from 13 countries and multiple academic disciplines who offer diverse perspectives, and critical insights into the principal contradictions of contemporary capitalism while pointing to alternative economic and social models. Together, they reconsider the most influential historical debates on Capital and provide new interpretations of Marx’s magnum opus in light of themes rarely associated with Capital, such as gender, ecology, and non-European societies.

The book is an indispensable source for academic communities who are increasingly interested in rediscovering Marx beyond 20th century Marxism. Moreover, it will be of great appeal to students, as well as established scholars interested in critique of capitalism and socialist theory.

chapter 1|35 pages

Introduction

The unfinished critique of Capital

part I|86 pages

Capitalism, past and present

chapter 3|29 pages

‘Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences’

Marx on the economic cell form of Capital and the analysis of capitalist social formations

chapter 6|15 pages

Marx’s new concept of class

part II|94 pages

Extending the critique of Capital

chapter 7|20 pages

Revolution begins at home

Rethinking Marx, reproduction and the class struggle

chapter 8|22 pages

Towards a communist revolution

Gender and class in Capital, Volume I

chapter 9|17 pages

Marx and Engels

The intellectual relationship revisited from an ecological perspective

chapter 10|13 pages

Marx’s Capital and the earth

An ecological critique of political economy

chapter 12|9 pages

Had Capital been written today

part III|71 pages

The politics of Capital