Sydney Ideas Key Thinkers Lecture Series：悉尼思想關(guān)鍵思想家的系列講座

1、1 Karl Marx Overheads used by John Buchanan 12 August 2009 2 The pleasure of ideas and thinking Arts revival Consumer-driven approach Question: Why is Marx still relevant and exciting? 3 Marx as historical figure Marx as political influence Academic Marxism Industry The two Marxs Revolutionary / act

2、ivist Researcher / analyst 4 Disciplines: history, law and economics Outlook of an applied labour market researcher Former environment, student and union activist Understanding social reality ie contributions to analysis/systematic thinking Case studies from the world of work 5 Essentials of his lif

3、e and politics The essentials of his analytical legacy Social philosophy Historical materialism Political economy Assessing his analytical legacy analytical outlook (ie predisposition) analytical leads (ie history and political economy) analytical mode (ie epistemology) analytical limits (ie closure

4、s) Conclusion 6 Essentials of his life Remarkable career Remarkable support (friend + wife) Remarkably common weaknesses 7 Connoisseur of paradox + contradiction = grasping dialectal dynamics Key human traits - need to consume - ability to produce Key features of human existence - scarcity - surplus

5、 Distinctiveness of human potential - capable of so much more - projective consciousness 8 Projective Consciousness Cooperates in setting of scarcity and surplus Forces of production - materials - technology - labour Mode of production - Asiatic - Ancient - Feudal - Capitalist Politics Ideology + +

6、Law Culture Superstructure Relations of Production ie property relations Social formation 9 Example: Brenner on role of the peasantry causality contingent 10 Marxs great project Distinctiveness of capitalism: world of commodities Three distinct dynamics of capitalism: trade cycle Capital Vol I growt

7、h dynamics Capital Vol II falling rate of profit Capital Vol III 11 Markets long predate capitalism but primarily for use values C M C Under capitalism markets predominate Overwhelming for exchange value M C M 12 Profits Employment Wages Employment Unemployment WagesProfits New Technology Investment

8、 Capital Vol I Trade Cycle: understanding booms/busts 13 Understanding how output, income and expenditure rise (Capital Vol II) Two Sector example: capital goods and consumption goods (ie Departments I+II) Key issue: flow of capital, labour and surplus investment, wages and profits : provided capita

9、l and labour replenished + profits ploughed back in necessary ratios =steady state growth possible Growth theory: 14 But challenges are real : differential rates of productivity growth between sectors : consumption patterns dont automatically adjust : surplus can be misallocated =Potential for crisi

10、s of structural adjustment Growth theory: 15 Capitalists investments to profit by employment - BUT: if surplus does not rise, profits fall “Wages must not rise faster than growth in productivity” = Crisis in profitability is always potentially there Falling rate of profit: The Key Driver Capital Vol

11、 III 16 This is a tendency, not a certainty. Counter trends include: New inventions cheaper goods + demand (Marx) Mergers & acquisitions concentrations of capital and scale economies (Marx) Wages fall below subsistence level (Earned income tax Credits) Foreign trade: export capital, import raw mater

12、ials and consumer goods (“Globalisation”) = Crises can be avoided Falling rate of profit: The Key Driver Capital Vol III 17 1. Concentration of means of production abolish private property 2. Labour constantly reorganised: co-operation, re-divisions of labour + united with science abolish private la

13、bour 3. Creation of a world market Capitalism grows but in a contradictory way via crises and cycles. Whether crises are terminal is an empirical not conceptual question Marxs three cardinal facts of capitalist production 18 Assessing the analytical legacy Predisposition Analytical leads Mode of inq

14、uiry and presentation Closures 19 Analytical Predisposition I The power of paradoxes non-linear thinking Understanding dynamism/tendencies and countervailing tendencies 20 The great taboo: What is wrong with the private property system? ie. Questioning of established social relations Legacy - opens

15、up space : analytically : politically/policy Example - Swedish union wages policy + Wage Earner Funds 21 The importance of production and social surplus Legacy - offers powerful leads for inquiry Example - rising non-standard employment + accumulation based on inequality 22 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25

16、0.3 0.35 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 years profit rates NONFARM NONFARM NONMFGR MFGR Source: Robert Brenner (UCLA) The Boom and the Bubble (Verso 2002) US net profit rates, 1948-1999 (adjusted for i

17、ndirect business taxes) 23 Retained Earnings Dividends Interest 1990-96 (%) 40 36 24 Source: Robert Brenner, The Economics of Global Turbulence, New Left Review, No 299, June, 1990 1950- 65 (%) 75 25 0.01 Retained earnings, interest and dividends 1950-65 - 1990-1996 24 Composition of Demand Distribu

18、tion of income Tastes Distribution System Households by Type: Size/no. of persons Economically active Welfare/private pension Composition of Employment Manufacturing/services/government Full-time/part-time Temporary/permanent Male/female Manual/non-manual Firms by Sector Manufacturing Services Publi

19、c Source: Froud etal 1997, From Social Settlement to Household Lottery: Economy and Society, Vol 26, No 3, 1997 pp340-72 25 Pragmatic realism Legacy - conceptual precision: historical + logical - immense appetite for the empirical - validation through practice Example - skill formation problems in V

20、ictorian manufacturing 26 Marxs method of inquiry 2. Historical analysis 3. Structural analysis 1. Research 4. Presentation 5. Validation The Challenge for Victorian Manufacturing: Deployment Crushing Development of Labour Excess capacity Intense competition Skill impacts Direct indirect “Farmers ea

21、ting their seeds” New organisational forms Fuels new revitalised growth path Breakdown in on + off job training Changing role of large workplaces Implications: (i) limited capacity to handle: New skill requirements Established skill requirements (ii) Victorian innovation provide future pointers Scen

22、ario A: Upward Spiral Turning the tide Building new capacity Modernising existing capacity Scenario B: Downward Spiral: steady slide of manufacturing 28 Drew on all realms of human understanding to grasp the dynamism of capitalism -Combined both science and art Capital as a work that captures all fa

23、cets of social complexity -Interest in the artistic whole 29 Technicist and reductionist (tendencies) - problem shared with liberals (eg Adam Smith) Legacy - limits analytical and political possibilities in the current situation - neglected dynamics of consumption Examples - labour as a commodity (B

24、iernacki 1995) - consumption and status anxiety (Schor, Frank, de Botton) 30 Why is Marx still relevant and exciting? Analytical predisposition opens up space Analytical categories powerful leads in inquiry Analytical approach links theory, data and practice Analytical closures: can be transcended 3

25、1 Basically: Marx offers powerful pointers for understanding the past and present to better guide the struggle for a more just future 32 References: K.Marx & F.Engels:The Communist Manifesto, originally published 1848 K.Marx: Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy, originally published in 1859 (especially preface and introduction) Commentaries: General overview Francis Wheen, Karl Marx. A Life, Fourth Estate, London, 2000 Jonathan Wolff, Why read Marx today?, Oxford UP, 2002 (b) Historical materiali