The Capitalist Mode of Power: Past, Present, Future
The
Second Annual Forum on Capital as Power
20-21 October 2011, York University,
Toronto
Call for Papers
*Extended Abstract Submission Deadline: July 31st,
2011*
Keynote Speakers
Bob Jessop, Lancaster University
Michael
Perelman, California State University
L. Randall Wray, University of Missouri
The annual conference series organized by the Forum on Capital as Power
brings together a diverse range of radically minded people interested in
exploring the concept of power as a basis for re-thinking and re-searching
value, capital and accumulation. As the name of our forum suggests, we think
that the Capital as Power framework offers a promising new, but by no means the
only, alternative for pursuing radical and innovative research in political
economy. By conceptualizing capital as the symbolic quantification of power, and
capitalism as a mode of power, this framework challenges the foundational
bifurcations between politics/economics, ‘real’/‘nominal’ and state/capital upon
which conventional theories of capitalism rest. And by re-casting accumulation
as a process of differential capitalization, this framework also offers research
tools for empirically exploring capitalism; something that liberal and Marxist
theories, anchored respectively in problematic units of ‘utility’ and ‘abstract
labour’, have difficulty providing. This combined focus on theoretical-empirical
research is, for us, of paramount importance. It points the way to a more
democratic form of knowledge production. And it corresponds with what we believe
should be a guiding maxim of radical praxis: that in order to change the world,
we first have to adequately interpret and explain it.
As with all new
frameworks, the Capital as Power approach is still very much open to elaboration
and refinement, as well as contestation. Our inaugural conference in 2010 marked
a positive step in this regard. It generated enthusiastic discussion and debate,
it produced exciting new insights and new research related to the Capital as
Power approach, and it yielded original material for forthcoming publications.
But there is still ample scope for further inquiry: is a focus on Capital as
Power able to account for the historical origins and spread of capitalism? Is it
amenable to contemporary comparative research in different geographical and
social contexts? What can a focus on Capital as Power tell us about the possible
future trajectories of the global capitalist order? What kind of democratic and
humane alternatives to the existing order does it envision? And in what ways
does Capital as Power intersect and overlap with other power-centered approaches
to political economy?
With these questions in mind, our second annual
conference invites contributions from those who critically engage with, extend
or operationalize the Capital as Power approach in their own research. We also
welcome contributions by those who present other power-centered alternatives to
existing theories of capitalism. Contributions might address, but are not
necessarily restricted to, the following areas:
- Capitalist power and
the labour process;
- The emergence of the modern state as a locus of
capitalization;
- The role of capitalist power in contemporary crises of real
estate, sovereign debt or natural resources;
- The intersection of the
capitalist mode of power with other modes of power;
- Capital as Power from
regional and comparative perspectives;
- The role of entertainment, leisure
and consumption from a capitalist perspective;
- Capitalist power over the
biosphere;
- Alternative visions for the future, including alternative,
democratic accounting systems.
Please send abstracts of 250 words to the
following address by July 31, 2011: capitalaspower2011@gmail.com
Organizing
Committee: Joseph Baines (York University), Sandy Brian Hager (York University)
and Mladen Ostojic (York University)