About Erichttp://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 classTrade 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 oursystems 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

Classes, economic systems and nation states are increasingly connected through globalization

Reducing environment to the cheapest input, not best environmentor foundation of its people. Environmental quality is externalizedas lower class needs are marginalized and locus of control is shiftsShell?, Starbucks? Can’t separate people and the environment.

A new way condition?

“connectivity”reflected inmarkets and transportation systems

SARS 2002-2003

Unanticipated consequences of“connectivity”reflected inmarkets and transportation systems

Adam Smith. Letter to David Hume. [Dated Kirkaldy, 16th June, 1776]Glasgow University

30,000 yearsof evolution

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.)

Does thissystematiccolonial and unevenprocess still continuetoday inpoliticaland economicrelations?Diamonds, not diamondwatches

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

2. The Geography of Capitalist Accumulation: Some Key Concepts a. The production of space and scale, landscapes, local?

systematic uneven development, & spatial divisions of labourb. 'The Urban Question': Marxist theories of urbanization

under capitalism & his version of division of labour, in & bn nations. 50%, globalization -- a system or coincidence?

1700-1800s

The production of space & scale, landscapes, systematic uneven development, & spatial divisions of labour CQ Ecological changes and consequences?

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-versathrough 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 ecologicallyand 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)

Application of human

labour

Means of productionInstruments of labour (tools)

Objects of labour (“raw” materials)

Natural world

Use values

Purposive(organized)

work

The Labour Process in General Terms

Application of human labour

(for a wage by workers)

Means of ProductionInstruments of labour (tools)

Objects of labour (“raw” materials)(controlled by capitalists)

Natural world(property owned by capitalists)

Commodities(sold by capitalist

for exchange value)

Purposivework

(organized by capitalist)

The Capitalist Labour Process

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

NATURESOCIETY

LEGALPOLITICAL RELATIONS

SOCIALRELATIONS OF PRODUCTION

TECHNICAL DIVISION OF LABOUR

SUPERSTRUCTURE ECONOMIC BASE

OBJECTS OF LABOURe.g. rawmaterials,land

MEANS OF PRODUCTION

FORCES OF PRODUCTION

MODE OF PRODUCTION (e.g. Feudal, capitalist etc)

MEANSOFLABOUR:Technology

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 andstart the second wave…NPR Killer Fog of 1952

End

Luxuryconsumption

Reproduction of labour

power

Production of values and surplus value

Means of production(intermediate inputs and machinery)Dept. I

Luxury goodsDept. III

Wage goodsDept. II

Labour power

Constant productivityof labour

The Relations in Marx’s “Reproduction on an Expanded Scale”Capital, Vol. 2

Nature

NATURESOCIETY

LEGALPOLITICAL RELATIONS

SOCIALRELATIONS OF PRODUCTION

TECHNICAL DIVISION OF LABOUR

SUPERSTRUCTURE ECONOMIC BASE

OBJECTS OF LABOURe.g. rawmaterials,land

MEANS OF PRODUCTION

FORCES OF PRODUCTION

MODE OF PRODUCTION (e.g. Feudal, capitalist etc)

MEANSOFLABOUR:MACHINERYBUILDINGS

Marxist Political Economy: Introductory Comments

• Economics and economic geography are inherently ideological

neoclassical economics

market exchange

the individual

consumer sovereignty

harmony/consensus

equilibrium

a neutral state

marxist political economy

production/labour process

class relations

profit/capital accumulation

conflict/ antagonistic class relations

dynamic disequilibrium/uneven development/crisis

capitalist state embodying class interests

Competing DiscoursesMarket Economy Capitalism

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