Critiquing Capitalism Today

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: Marxian Value Theory in New Times

   • Frederick Harry Pitts

   Pages 1-19

3. The New Reading of Marx

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

      PDF

   2. Value, Time and Abstract Labour

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 23-51

   3. Money and the Exchange Abstraction

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 53-69

   4. Labour in the Valorisation Process

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 71-103

   5. Class, Critique and Capitalist Crisis

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 105-137

4. Postoperaismo

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139

      PDF

   2. Immanence, Multitude and Empire

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 141-167

   3. The Fragment on Machines

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 169-190

   4. A Crisis of Measurability

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 191-219

   5. Creative Industries and Commodity Exchange

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 221-247

   6. Conclusion: From Postoperaismo to Postcapitalism

      • Frederick Harry Pitts

      Pages 249-261

5. Back Matter

   Pages 263-279

   PDF

This book critically introduces two compelling contemporary schools of Marxian thought: the New Reading of Marx of Michael Heinrich and Werner Bonefeld, and the postoperaismo of Antonio Negri. Each stake novel claims on Marx’s value theory, the first revisiting key categories of the critique of political economy through Frankfurt School critical theory, the second calling the law of value into crisis with reference to Marx’s rediscovered ‘Fragment on Machines’. Today, ‘postcapitalist’ conceptualisations of a changing workplace excite interest in postoperaist projections of a crisis of measurability sparked by so-called immaterial labour. Using the New Reading of Marx to question this prospectus, Critiquing Capitalism Today clarifies complex debates for newcomers to these cutting-edge currents of critical thought, looking anew at value, money, labour, class and crisis.

• Marxism
• Antonio Negri
• revisionist
• Italian
• operaismo
• Open Marxism
• Adorno
• economic theory
• theory of society
• workers
• labor
• capitalism
• capitalist
• accelerationism
• postcapitalism
• immaterial labor
• labour
• leftism

“The theory of value introduced in this book abandons the dialectic, and seems to justify the capitalist mode of production via a sort of Millian utilitarianism, where the concept of ‘happiness’ is replaced by ‘social validation.’ Eventually, the crises of overproduction – necessary within the capitalist mode of production – would be deduced from ‘social validation,’ i.e., from an effect, and not from intrinsic causal laws.” (Dario Cositore, Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 19 (4), December, 2020) “This book rejects the idea that we have entered a postcapitalist reality as at best wishful thinking and pure ideology at worst. Pitts looks into the eye of the storm that is brewing all around us, laying bare the sheer unrest of life in a system of wealth in which money only counts as more money. A remarkable book.” (Werner Bonefeld, Professor of Politics, University of York) “This book challenges postoperaismo’s overestimation of workers’ power and its recent reception in postcapitalist dreams of an automated future. Maturing in these pages is a new way to read Marx and understand resistance in a money-dominated world.” (Ana Dinerstein, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Bath) 

“Too much fashionable thinking on the left lacks rigour and an appreciation of the history of Marxist thought. This is especially the case when we consider value theory and alternative approaches to the world ofwork. In contrast this exceptional book knows its subject matter- and demands to be read by anyone who claims allegiance to the contemporary left.” (Jon Cruddas MP, Visiting Professor, Centre of Sustainable Work and Employment Futures, University of Leicester)

• School of Economics, Finance and Management, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

  Frederick Harry Pitts

Frederick Harry Pitts is Lecturer in Management at the School of Economics, Finance and Management, University of Bristol, UK.

 

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