Social and professional practice / political economy / history of capitalism

Teacher: Magali Michaux

Financial capitalism, cognitive capitalism, surveillance capitalism, authoritarian capitalism, capitalism of finitude, apocalyptic capitalism, technofeudalism… These are just some of the terms that attempt to define what makes our present unique and that posit a profound transformation of capitalism. How, then, can we write a critical history of capitalism today, that is, at the very moment when those who study it believe it is undergoing profound transformation, or even that we are entering a new economic system? The aim of this course is to address this very question from this pivotal moment! Both theoretically and through practical exercises.

On the theoretical level, the course intends to begin with the work of contemporary theorists who assert a rupture or transformation of capitalism, in order to accomplish two things. The first objective is to understand how capitalism functions by examining its various components—such as the market, competition, prices, the organization of labor, and so on—as well as their historical interrelationships. The second is to be able to construct, based on the identification of these different modes of operation, a comparative history of the various types of capitalism throughout its history.

On a practical level, to grasp the complexity of the economy in which we operate, the course uses an inquiry-based approach. Working individually or in small groups, students unpack and map a socio-political-economic nexus, highlighting the intertwining of the different dimensions at play in the materiality of our lives. The focus here shifts from general modes of economic organization to narrowing down our study to a specific commodity, chosen by each working group, in order to reconstruct and analyze all the activities that ensure its production, distribution, and consumption.

In other words, the course proposes to study, through the reading of contemporary theorists and through research, how capitalism is made, by examining the different historical configurations of certain elements associated with it. This emphasis on "making" aims to avoid viewing capitalism as a given, stable, and immutable entity; and its history as a chain of closed sequences, made up of different dominant forms—merchant capitalism, industrial capitalism, financial capitalism, etc.—that would succeed one another linearly toward a present posited, then, as an inevitable, predetermined endpoint, thus making the past a creator of destiny. On the contrary, the course seeks to emphasize both the forces necessary for the construction and functioning of capitalism, and those that work to drive its orientations and its future development, while reminding us of our own agency in our actions, our attachments, and our desires for the future.