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CAPITAL WITHOUT WAGE-LABOUR: MARX’S MODES OF SUBSUMPTION REVISITED

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2017

Nicholas Vrousalis
Nicholas Vrousalis*
Affiliation:
Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333AK Leiden, the Netherlands. Email: n.vrousalis@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
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Abstract:

This paper argues that capitalist social relations do not presuppose wage-labour. The paper defends a functional definition of the capitalist relations of production, in terms of what Marx calls the ’subsumption of labour by capital’. I argue that there are at least four modes of subsumption, one transitional to and one transitional from the capitalist mode of production. Unlike the capitalist mode of production, capitalist relations of production are compatible with the absence of a labour market, and even with the absence of workplace authority relations. The ambit of capitalist domination is therefore broader than typically thought.

Keywords

exploitation theoryhistorical materialismMarxismvalue-form theoryagrarian capitalism
Type
Symposium Article
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 34 , Special Issue 3: Exploitation , November 2018 , pp. 411 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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