Production, Circulation, and the Science of Forms: Theoretical Foundations

In Chapter 2 the authors explain the pivotal role of value-form analysis, discuss the internal association of value and money and present various approaches to Marxian understanding of the unity of production and circulation. They argue that in the capitalist mode of production the production process is not a domain where value simply lingers. Instead, the exchange relation comes as the final moment of the production of value since it validates and socializes the production process. To understand the full complexity of this process they outline different levels of abstractions and social forms within the capitalist mode of production, moving beyond neoclassical and mainstream analyses that naturalise capitalist production and exchange, and ignore its transitory, historical existence.