ABSTRACT
For decades, Charles Lemert has been the leading voice in social theory. In Capitalism and its Uncertain Future he teams up with one of the most creative emerging social theorists, Kristin Plys, to examine how social theory imagines capitalism. This engaging and innovative book provides new perspectives on well known theorists from Adam Smith, and Frantz Fanon, to Gilles Deleuze, while also introducing readers to lesser known theorists such as Lucia Sanchez Saornil, Mohammad Ali El Hammi, and many more. The book examines theories of capitalism from four perspectives: macro-historical theories of the origins of capitalism; postcolonial theories of capitalism that situate capitalism as seen from the Global South; theories of capitalism from the perspective of labor; and prospective theories of capitalism’s uncertain future. This provocative and ambitious, yet accessible, perspective on theories of capitalism will be of interest to anyone who wants to explore where we’ve been and where we’re headed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|38 pages
The Confusion of Capitalist Structures
part II|57 pages
Macro-Historical Theories of Capitalism
chapter 5|6 pages
Long-Distance Trade and the Transition to Capitalism
part III|82 pages
Postcolonial Theories of Capitalism
chapter 13|7 pages
The Role of Working Class Violence in National Liberation
chapter 16|14 pages
Against the Colonization of Consciousness of Political Economy
chapter 21|10 pages
Orientalism, Postmodernity, and the Problem with Capitalist Culture
part IV|36 pages
Theories of Labor and Capitalism
chapter 22|4 pages
The Labor Process and Work under Capitalism
chapter 24|5 pages
Worker Self-Management and Black Working Class Consciousness
chapter 25|7 pages
Theorizing the Global Division of Labor
chapter 27|3 pages
Resistance against the Market and Struggles of Newly Emerging Working Classes
part V|106 pages
Capitalism's Uncertain Future
chapter 29|9 pages
The Disciplinary Empire and the Resisting Multitude
chapter 31|8 pages
The Poverty of Development Economics
chapter 36|10 pages
Silenced and Wasted Lives in the Capitalism Order
chapter 38|18 pages
Assemblage Theory: The New Necessary Analytics of Capitalism
part VI|33 pages
Exploitation and Exclusion