Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781
Nicholas Croce
{"title":"Book Review: Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet — and What We Can Do About It","authors":"Nicholas Croce","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781","url":null,"abstract":"The subtitle of Nancy Fraser’s latest work asserts that it’s a ‘System’, not an ‘economic system’ that is doing the devouring. Many of us have perhaps argued that capital is everywhere all at once, all things undergoing commodification. Maybe we’ve even gone as far as to say that capitalism’s devouring of social life is a matter of our global eschatological final course. Fraser’s Cannibal Capitalism says not so fast. Georg Lukács says that the commodity form colonizes all of life, and Fraser argues against Lukács, insisting that capitalism relies on ‘the very existence of zones of non-commodification’ (p. 18). The cornerstone argument of this book is that capitalism relies on these zones marked as non-economic and is cannibalizing them: an ‘ouroboros’ that eats its own tail. As Fraser takes readers through the backrooms of capitalism’s ‘five crises of gluttony’, it becomes progressively clear that it is her analysis – of this historical moment’s severe subjugation of social reproduction to commodity production – which can generate a lucid, anti-oppressive politics. The book proceeds in six chapters, plus a preface and an epilogue. Each features a corny yet instructive title, all extremely on-theme. Omnivore argues that capitalism is not an economic system and is better described as a bundle of relations between different facets of life. Fraser goes on to explain in the next four chapters what these relations are. Glutton for Punishment details the relationship between racism and capitalism, or more specifically, racism and what she calls the ‘two exes’, expropriation and exploitation. I expect many readers seek an analysis of race and capitalism, so it makes sense that Fraser starts here. Fraser explains that race has often been the fulcrum around which facially economic choices about exploitation and expropriation take place. Capitalism is a system by which racial logics help determine who is to be expropriated and who is ‘lucky’ enough for the ‘doubly-free’ system of wage labour. Next, Care Guzzler elucidates that capitalism at once relies on unwaged care work while subverting care work’s life sustaining capacities. Sharing resonances, Nature in the Maw details capitalism’s reliance on nature as a free or cheap resource-for-the-taking. This chapter is classic Fraser, a strong reprisal of her theory on nature (as conceived under capitalism) as a ‘tap’ to draw upon 1151781 CNC0010.1177/03098168231151781Capital & ClassBook Reviews book-review2023","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83866866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781a
M. Keaney
{"title":"Book Review: The Asset Economy","authors":"M. Keaney","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781a","url":null,"abstract":"For example, if the book were to take Nick Srnicek’s (2017) formulation of platform capitalism, how might it be different? Does the circumscription within platform enterprises signify an emergent logic of market delineation, a self-cannibalization of sorts? If so, what are the ramifications? Despite these shortfalls, Professor Fraser’s Cannibal Capitalism is a prime first course to introduce capitalism today.","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76725283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781c
Nathan Critch
{"title":"Book Review: Our Bloc: How we win","authors":"Nathan Critch","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781c","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77062304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781b
Daniel Hinze
{"title":"Book Review: Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy","authors":"Daniel Hinze","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781b","url":null,"abstract":"use of the balance sheet metaphor chimes with the ‘hedge fund’ concept employed in another recent study of households’ economic management under neoliberal, financialized capitalism (Bryan & Rafferty 2018). This is a richly provocative, rewarding book that deserves the widest readership, most especially among those wondering why resort to Keynesian-era logic fails to persuade even the presumed beneficiaries of such policies.","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81550953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781e
J. Peacock
{"title":"Book Review: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer","authors":"J. Peacock","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781e","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73972468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781g
W. Marzec
{"title":"Book Review: Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882–1917)","authors":"W. Marzec","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781g","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781g","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73573192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781f
Md Sarfaraj Nawab
{"title":"Book Review: Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost","authors":"Md Sarfaraj Nawab","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781f","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781f","url":null,"abstract":"socialist, drew on ‘the heritage of 1968 and hippiedom during the crisis of the post-war social democratic settlement and the beginnings of neoliberalism’ and it was this especially ‘potent context’ that made his work so powerful (p. 272). This is not to deny his agency or his sheer charisma, but rather to locate it within a formative sociohistorical environment that goes a long way to explaining his enduring resonance. Whether Strummer’s influence will endure into the long, unwritten future is unclear. The romantics who attend events such as Strummer of Love and International Clash Day will surely hope so. Gall, pragmatic and objective to the last, ends the book with thoughts on the conditions necessary to sustain Strummer’s relevance, and on the importance of further exploring music as a ‘terrain of struggle’ in the ‘culture wars’ (p. 278). Readers seeking another Strummer hagiography will be disappointed; those seeking an insightful, thought-provoking and inspiring analysis of popular music’s intersections with politics, and a critical dissection of the musician’s role in promoting political ideals, will be delighted.","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85481519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1177/03098168231151781d
J. Hübner
{"title":"Book Review: Cooperatives in the Global Economy","authors":"J. Hübner","doi":"10.1177/03098168231151781d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168231151781d","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85814975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital and ClassPub Date : 2023-01-12DOI: 10.1177/03098168221145453
Michael Sommer, Christian Stache
{"title":"Marx’s non-speciesist concept of labour","authors":"Michael Sommer, Christian Stache","doi":"10.1177/03098168221145453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168221145453","url":null,"abstract":"Human–animal scholars have repeatedly accused Marx of standing in the tradition of a Cartesian human–animal dualism. One central piece of evidence brought forward to substantiate the attack is Marx’s concept of labour. The present article, however, argues that Marx’s conceptualisation of labour is actually non-speciesist and recognises non-waged and other than human forms of labour as well without renouncing qualitative distinctions between them. For Marx, both useful labour and the historically specific capitalist form of social labour cannot be reduced to something peculiar to man. Useful labour encompasses a wide range of ways to transform nature. Due to the bourgeois social relations, capitalist social labour is instead limited to human productive wage labour, excluding numerous types of human labour as well as animal labour. Thus, his concept of labour proves that Marx is not just another ‘speciesist’ scholar in the long Western tradition of philosophy.","PeriodicalId":46258,"journal":{"name":"Capital and Class","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83756838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}