The Micro-Politics of Capital

Jason Read

Description

What is the relation between the economy, or the mode of production, and culture, beliefs, and desires? How is it possible to think of these relations without reducing one to the other, or effacing one for the sake of the other? To answer these questions, The Micro-Politics of Capital re-reads Marx in light of the contemporary critical interrogations of subjectivity in the works of Althusser, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, and Negri. Jason Read suggests that what characterizes contemporary capitalism is the intimate intersection of the production of commodities with the production of desire, beliefs, and knowledge.

Introduction: There Is No Time Like the Present

1. The Use and Disadvantage of Prehistory for Life: Marx's "Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations" and the Constitution of the Subject of Labor

Primitive Accumulation
Immanent Causality
The Prehistory of Capitalism
Production
Antagonistic Logic (Part One)

2. What Is Living and What is Dead in the Philosophy of Karl Marx: The Politics and Ontology of Living Labor

Abstract Labor
Living Labor
Disciplinary Power
Antagonistic Logic (Part Two)
The Production of Subjectivity

3. The Real Subsumption of Subjectivity by Capital

Real Subsumption
The Fragment on Machines
Immaterial Labor
Subjectivity: From Reproduction to Production
The Common

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791486245
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

T h e M i c r o - P o l i t i c s o f C a p i t a l

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T h e M i c r o - P o l i t i c s o f C a p i t a l

Marx and the Prehistory of the Present

J a s o n R e a d

S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y o f N e w Y o r k P r e s s

Cover art: “Rapture,” by Jon Read.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2003 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Kelli Williams Marketing by Patrick Durocher

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Read, Jason. The micro-politics of capital : Marx and the prehistory of the present / Jason Read. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-5843-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5844-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Marxian economics. 2. Philosophy, Marxist. 3. Economics— Philosophy. 4. Capitalism—Political aspects. 5. Intellectual capital. 6. Production (Economic theory). 7. Post-communism. 8. Postmodernism. 9. Subjectivity. 10. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. 11. Althusser, Louis. I. Title.

HB97.5.R42 2003 335.4'12—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2003050530

To my parents, Robert Read and Deborah C. Arntz, for their constant support.

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Contents

Introduction: There Is No Time Like the Present

1

1. The Use and Disadvantage of Prehistory for Life: Marx’s “Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations” and the Constitution of the Subject of Labor Primitive Accumulation 19 Immanent Causality 26 The Prehistory of Capitalism 37 Production 48 Antagonistic Logic (Part One) 56

2. What Is Living and What is Dead in the Philosophy of Karl Marx: The Politics and Ontology of Living Labor Abstract Labor Living Labor Disciplinary Power Antagonistic Logic (Part Two) The Production of Subjectivity

3. The Real Subsumption of Subjectivity by Capital Real Subsumption The Fragment on Machines Immaterial Labor Subjectivity: From Reproduction to Production The Common

Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

61 76 83 90 98

103 114 122 135 149

153 163 199 209

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Acknowledgments

I thank Meredith Michaels and Bill Haver for helping me develop my questions and research at an early stage and, more important, for giving me at least the image of what it might mean to live a life dedicated to the practice of interrogation and reflection. I thank explicitly all of those who read and reread sections of this pro- ject in its many guises—from dissertation and manuscript to book—and provided criticism, commentary, and suggestions: Kira Brunner, Christopher Fynsk, Bill Haver, Michael Hardt, Lily Jacobs, Fouad Kalouche, Warren Montag, Robert Read, Stephen David Ross, and Hasana Sharp. I thank Ophelia Selam for helping me with my forays into the world of translation; “The Materialist Workshop” at State University of New York–Binghamton and all of the people who have been as- sociated with that infamous title at one time or another (Peter Carlo, Alejandro de Acosta, Mark Frezzo, Pete Morse, Diana Taylor, Chad Wilson, Soenke Zehle, to name but a few), for providing fertile soil for the development of many of these ideas; Stefano Harney, Bill Martin, Gabrielle Soldatenko, Paul Zarembka, Laurie Ousley, The Brecht Forum, and The Graduate Group for Marxist Studies at the University of Buffalo for inviting me to present parts of my research. A special thank you to the students in my course on Marxism at the University of Southern Maine for their excitement, energy, and curiosity. Carol Varney provided a great deal of support, encouragement, and advice during the final days of preparing the manuscript, and I am eternally grateful for all of her help. Finally, I am very grate- ful for the patience and support of Jane Bunker and Kelli Williams at State Uni- versity of New York Press.

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