About Eric
http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/geography/staff/swyngedouw_erik.htm
READINGS
1.
Understanding Capital
* Alison Blunt and Jane Wills (2001) ’Class, capital and space: Marxist
geographies’, Chapter 2 in A. Blunt and J. Wills Dissident Geographies: An
Introduction to Radical Ideas and Practice. London: Prentice Hall. pp. 42-59
(N.B. only the first part of the chapter).(P&CC)
* Eric Swyngedouw (2000), ‘The Marxian alternative: historical-geographical
materialism and the political economy of capitalism’, Chapter 4 in E. Shepperd
and T. Barnes (eds) A Companion to Economic Geography. Oxford: Blackwell.
pp. 41-59.(P&CC)
* Ray Hudson (2001), ‘Placing Production in Its Theoretical Contexts’,Chapter
2 in R. Hudson Producing Places New York: Guilford. pp. 14- 47. (SR)
* Background Notes on Marxist Political Economy.
Full text for those that miss the class
Now that you have gotten through some basic
literature, what I say next can start to be put in context
Thesis for the class
Trade is not new, currency is not new.
This literature is not anti-trade, -currency, or -technology, per se.
However, our global systems for capital accumulation are having
radical impacts on societies and environments at paces and scales not seen before,
sometimes in unjust and unsustainable ways. We need to critically evaluate our
systems to understand root causes of change and have a chance to alter our path.
This requires critiquing political economic drivers of TES relations, not just science.
Currency from a land with an intact commons
This is not an entire course devoted to political economy,
and is mostly political economy of the environment
What is Political Economy?
• Political economy is a holistic approach to understanding
society from a materialist and systems perspective - practical
to be interdisciplinary (geographers)
• A split from economic techniques
• Classical political economy - Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl
Marx
• Historical-geographical materialism (David Harvey, Eric
Swyngedouw on water)
A synthesis of philosophical materialism and dialectics.
All things are composed of material, and all phenomena are the result of
material interactions, so understanding the systems (esp. economics and
production) for resource capture and use reveals much about the roots of
past, present, and future conditions (social, environmental, etc.).
Dialectic referring to the exchange of arguments / counter-arguments
advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses).
Outcome of such debates may not simply be the refutation a point of
view, but a synthesis or combination of the opposing assertions, or at
least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue.
Practically speaking, good for getting at root causes of issues and
examining / challenging paradigms.
Why this works for setting-up my science: Silt and Kava
Marx’s theory labeled “historical materialism”
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles.”
(Marx, The Communist Manifesto, 1848)
What does this mean for environments around the world?
E.G. “Fair trade coffee’s” shade, pesticide, land use, fertilizer
Reducing environment to the cheapest input, not best environment
or foundation of its people. Environmental quality is externalized
as lower class needs are marginalized and locus of control is shifts
Shell?, Starbucks? Can’t separate people and the environment.
Classes, economic systems and nation states are
increasingly connected through globalization
A new
way
condition?
“connectivity”
reflected in
markets and
transportation
systems
SARS 2002-2003
Unanticipated
consequences of
“connectivity”
reflected in
markets and
transportation
systems
30,000 years
of evolution
Adam Smith. Letter to David Hume.
[Dated Kirkaldy, 16th June, 1776]
Glasgow University
II. ROOTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CITIES & REGIONS: CONCEPTS
1. Understanding Capital and the promise of emancipation and a middle
class in Smith’s “surplus capital” and division of labour to get there, parallels,
the rise of nation-states and fall of kings (“no taxation w/o rep.”, Fr. Rev.)
System inputs?: Slaves, mechanism, then “grabs,” now means of production
(RP, Italy), today modern capital a solvent (Ophuls)
a. The nature of capitalist production
b. Capital accumulation, landscapes transformed by circuits of capital
Does this
systematic
colonial
and uneven
process
still
continue
today in
political
and
economic
relations?
Diamonds,
not diamond
watches
2.
The Geography of Capitalist Accumulation: Some Key Concepts
a.
The production of space and scale, landscapes, local?
systematic uneven development, & spatial divisions of labour
b.
'The Urban Question': Marxist theories of urbanization
under capitalism & his version of division of labour, in & bn
nations. 50%, globalization -- a system or coincidence?
The production of space & scale, landscapes, systematic uneven development,
& spatial divisions of labour CQ Ecological changes and consequences?
1700-1800s
Locally and internationally -M prime -- For the system to work, who can participate in Smith’s
dream of emancipation (Polo in RP)? Class struggle is systematic?
Does somewhat have to stay behind? Environmental ramifications?
earth.google CNMI and China sweatshops
Watts and petroleum at the “point of production”
Without social controls -“Race to the bottom” in environment and labor inputs!
Steel/rivers and socks!
3.
“But didn’t ancient China trade?!”
Theorizing the Transition: Transformation of Contemporary Capitalism
Scale (tech), economies of scale -- surplus not craftsmanship
Rostow V. positions in systems, global division of labour, and
“comparative advantage” V. environmental exhaustion & being “stuck”
Institutions?
WTO no WERO -- globalization of capital accumulation philosophy
Alternatives, isolation and globalization, and connectivity?
Some important “new” questions have emerged in recent years
The role of science subsumed in political economy or vice-versa
through sustainability?
Understanding these relationships can help us
understand and predict ROOT causes of environmental
degradation and social and environmental injustice.
Your next literature’s focus, along with technology.
We can use this political economy lens to critique the environment.
Are our economic and technological systems ecologically
and social just and sustainable?
The Rise of Urban and Regional Political Economy
• A product of the last 30 years
• Exploded onto the academic scene in the 1970s and reflected
in a series of new academic journals - Antipode, Capital and
Class, Review of Radical Political Economics, IJURR, RIPE etc.
• The demise of Fordism and the deep structural changes in the
economy and society triggered the development of whole new
ways of theorizing about urban and regional change
• Led to a rediscovery of the Marxist tradition in western social
science and the development of a marxist-based urban and
regional political economy
Marxist Political Economy (con’t)
•
Production - both a technical and a social process
•
Specific ways of organizing production are socially produced and
historically specific and not, in some sense, natural (e.g. the
labour process)
The Labour Process in General Terms
Application
of human
labour
Purposive
(organized)
work
Means of production
Instruments of labour (tools)
Objects of labour (“raw” materials)
Natural world
Use values
The Capitalist Labour Process
Application of human
labour
(for a wage by workers)
Purposive
work
(organized by capitalist)
Means of Production
Instruments of labour (tools)
Objects of labour (“raw” materials)
(controlled by capitalists)
Natural world
(property owned by capitalists)
Commodities
(sold by capitalist
for exchange value)
The Nature of Production and Consumption
•
Basic Marxist Categories
– Labour process
– Forces of Production,
• Instruments of production
• Technical division of labour
– Means of Production,
– Social Relations of Production
– Economic Base/Superstructure
– Mode of Production
SOCIETY
LEGAL
POLITICAL
RELATIONS
SUPERSTRUCTURE
SOCIAL
RELATIONS
OF PRODUCTION
NATURE
TECHNICAL
DIVISION
OF LABOUR
MEANS
OF
LABOUR:
Technology
OBJECTS
OF
LABOUR
e.g. raw
materials,
land
ECONOMIC BASE
MEANS OF PRODUCTION
FORCES OF PRODUCTION
MODE OF PRODUCTION (e.g. Feudal, capitalist etc)
The Nature of Production and Consumption
• Production and Consumption: Expanded Reproduction of Capital
• “Self-globalizing” -- not a good or bad people, not an emphasis on
agency, but on systems that need to be growing to be healthy
Engineers stop engineering and start finding new markets
• Globalization of “High Consumption” has ramifications in energy,
environment, social justice, governance, land use, etc. worth investigation
The Nature of Production and Consumption (con’t)
• Dynamic of society and social change
– Struggle and conflict between classes that includes their environments!
• e.g. the wage bargain
– The contradiction between the forces and social relations of production
are the key mechanism of historical change of society and environment
– A role for socialism, alternatives to liberal democracies based on
markets? The role of free markets (next literature)?!
Ecological and public health ramifications of this organization of this
process (technological, labour, natural resources). For example,
NPR towards end of industrial revolution in Europe and
start the second wave…NPR Killer Fog of 1952
End
Constant
productivity
of labour
Nature
Luxury goods
Dept. III
Production of
values and
surplus value
Wage goods
Luxury
consumption
Dept. II
Labour power
Reproduction
of labour
power
Means of production
(intermediate inputs
and machinery)
Dept. I
The Relations in Marx’s “Reproduction on an Expanded Scale”
Capital, Vol. 2
SOCIETY
LEGAL
POLITICAL
RELATIONS
SUPERSTRUCTURE
SOCIAL
RELATIONS
OF PRODUCTION
NATURE
TECHNICAL
DIVISION
OF LABOUR
MEANS
OF
LABOUR:
MACHINERY
BUILDINGS
OBJECTS
OF
LABOUR
e.g. raw
materials,
land
ECONOMIC BASE
MEANS OF PRODUCTION
FORCES OF PRODUCTION
MODE OF PRODUCTION (e.g. Feudal, capitalist etc)
Marxist Political Economy: Introductory
Comments
•
Economics and economic geography are inherently ideological
Competing Discourses
Market Economy
Capitalism
neoclassical economics
marxist political economy
market exchange
production/labour process
the individual
class relations
consumer sovereignty
profit/capital accumulation
harmony/consensus
conflict/ antagonistic class relations
equilibrium
dynamic disequilibrium/uneven
development/crisis
a neutral state
capitalist state embodying class
interests
UNDERSTANDING CAPITAL
•
The Rise of Urban and Regional Political Economy
•
What is Political Economy?
•
Marxist Political Economy: Introductory Comments
•
The Basic Concepts of Marxist Analysis: The Nature of Production
(in General)
•
The Nature of Capitalist Production
•
The Rise of Urban and Regional Political Economy
•
What is Political Economy? Ricardo, Smith, et al. The split
between econ and pol econ
•
Marxist (M prime systems based) “Radical” Political Economy
•
CQ The Capitalist Production and Impacts on Equity directly and
via Nature?
The Nature of Production and Consumption
• Basic Marxist Categories
– labour process
– Forces of Production,
• instruments of production
• technical division of labour
– Means of Production,
– Social Relations of Production
– Economic Base/Superstructure
– Mode of Production
• Production and Consumption: Expanded Reproduction of
Capital