Mode of Production and the Historiography of Capitalism - by Jokubas Salyga & Kayhan Valadbaygi (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Bringing together leading scholars and activists, this edited collection calls for a return to the 'mode of production debate' to address often-overlooked dimensions: gender, race, and Eurocentrism.

The concept of mode of production is placed in dialogue with Marxist debates on domestic labour, racial capitalism and the ways in which Eurocentrism has shaped the historiographies of capitalism. In doing so, the book offers novel approaches to studying the origins, modalities and contradictions of capitalism.

Advancing an integrated framework that incorporates class, gender, race and ethnicity, the book opens pathways to new research for better understanding, resisting and transcending capitalism.

Review Quotes

"This collection helps re-equip Marxist political economy with the intellectual tools to respond to an era of permanent capitalist crisis, anti-egalitarian politics and the need for radical political alternatives. Deeply engaging reading", Benjamin Selwyn, University of Sussex.

"Gender, race and Eurocentrism are often peripheral in debates on capitalism. Bringing these concepts centre stage through the powerful voices of established and new scholars, this book makes a critical contribution to our understanding of capitalism. Mode of Production and Historiography of Capitalism is a welcome addition to Marxist scholarship and should be read by anyone wanting to understand the complex and urgent crises facing us". Shirin Rai, SOAS, University of London.

"This book delivers rigorous analyses of the heterogenous histories and experiences of capitalist production, oppression, and exploitation, grounded in non-Eurocentric and non-productivist frameworks. It challenges a stagist understanding of capitalism while incorporating theoretical innovations from the literatures on social reproduction and racial capitalism. The chapters both clarify and raise urgent questions about racialized and gendered production and reproduction that will benefit established and emerging scholars alike. The theoretical contributions of the chapters and the debates that they engender will open new avenues of understanding and theorizing capitalism. They also offer possibilities for articulating visions of liberation and emancipation", Sirisha C. Naidu, University of Missouri-Kansas City

"This remarkable volume offers a bold and necessary rethinking of the 'mode of production' through the prisms of domestic and social reproduction, racial capitalism, and decolonial critique. By weaving together rigorous theoretical inquiry with rich historical analysis, the editors and contributors illuminate the capitalist mode of production as a variegated and contested process--one that cannot be understood without grappling with the intertwined dynamics of exploitation and racialisation. Refusing both reductive economism and Eurocentric narratives, this collection brings together an impressive range of voices--Federici, Mezzadri, Banaji, van der Linden, and others--to reopen critical debates and chart new directions in radical political economy. An indispensable resource for scholars and students seeking to understand capitalism in all its fractured, global complexity", Leopoldina Fortunati, University of Udine, Italy.

About the Author

Jokubas Salyga is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Kayhan Valadbaygi is a Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History.