Pub Date : 2021-09-06DOI: 10.1177/10245294211039671
Stavros D Mavroudeas
This book offers a thorough and compelling analysis of the significance of the notion of fetishism for Marxist Political Economy. In contrast to Dobb’s (1979: 11) argument that the theories of fetishism and alienation belong to the Marxist theory of ideology, McNeill argues that they are sine qua non parts of the qualitative aspect of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value (LTV). This is a correct claim that the author proves convincingly, even though McNeill tends to downplay the quantitative aspect by stating that this was of no concern to Marx. Marxist Political Economy engages with both dimensions. The broader framework within which the author conducts his analysis is the accurate thesis that the Marxist perspective remains relevant in the 21st century. The current crises and turmoil of the capitalist economy, the blatant failure of mainstream economics and the subsequent revival of interest in Marxian Political Economy attest to this. The first part of the book examines the development of the notion of fetishism in Marx’s works, from an initial journalistic metaphor to a fully developed scientific concept. This analysis is extended in Part II where McNeill rigorously establishes the generic category of commodity fetishism and then its relationship to other forms of fetishism (money, capital and interest-bearing capital). He bolsters his exposition with a meticulous and accurate juxtaposition of Marx’s dialectical approach with that of Ricardo and Samuel Bailey (a critic of Ricardo and precursor of the Marginalist theory) regarding the nature of value. He accurately pinpoints Marx’s fundamental difference with both, namely his con-sideration of value as a social rather than a natural phenomenon. McNeill also juxtaposes Marx’s materialist dialectics with Hegel’s idealist dialectics. These two parts constitute the backbone of the book and offer original contributions to Marxist Political Economy.
{"title":"Desmond McNeill, Fetishism and the Theory of Value: Reassessing Marx in the 21st Century","authors":"Stavros D Mavroudeas","doi":"10.1177/10245294211039671","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211039671","url":null,"abstract":"This book offers a thorough and compelling analysis of the significance of the notion of fetishism for Marxist Political Economy. In contrast to Dobb’s (1979: 11) argument that the theories of fetishism and alienation belong to the Marxist theory of ideology, McNeill argues that they are sine qua non parts of the qualitative aspect of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value (LTV). This is a correct claim that the author proves convincingly, even though McNeill tends to downplay the quantitative aspect by stating that this was of no concern to Marx. Marxist Political Economy engages with both dimensions. The broader framework within which the author conducts his analysis is the accurate thesis that the Marxist perspective remains relevant in the 21st century. The current crises and turmoil of the capitalist economy, the blatant failure of mainstream economics and the subsequent revival of interest in Marxian Political Economy attest to this. The first part of the book examines the development of the notion of fetishism in Marx’s works, from an initial journalistic metaphor to a fully developed scientific concept. This analysis is extended in Part II where McNeill rigorously establishes the generic category of commodity fetishism and then its relationship to other forms of fetishism (money, capital and interest-bearing capital). He bolsters his exposition with a meticulous and accurate juxtaposition of Marx’s dialectical approach with that of Ricardo and Samuel Bailey (a critic of Ricardo and precursor of the Marginalist theory) regarding the nature of value. He accurately pinpoints Marx’s fundamental difference with both, namely his con-sideration of value as a social rather than a natural phenomenon. McNeill also juxtaposes Marx’s materialist dialectics with Hegel’s idealist dialectics. These two parts constitute the backbone of the book and offer original contributions to Marxist Political Economy.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"650 - 652"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44857979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-19DOI: 10.1177/10245294211038425
E. Gallo
Neoliberalism and authoritarianism are intimately connected, as is demonstrated by the existence of a growing body of literature on ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’. This article provides a taxonomy of authoritarian neoliberalism and claims that it appears in three varieties – technocracy, populist nationalism, and traditional authoritarianism. Also, it proposes both an overview of the varieties and an analysis of three states as case studies. States are investigated as actors which strongly contribute to the neoliberal project amidst a more complex process of multilocalized and variegated neoliberalizations, which have to be incorporated into the comparative research. First, Italy is studied as a consolidated Western democracy which has been often governed by technocrats, independent, non-party professionals who have recurrently been in power since the 1990s, and within the frame of an increasingly technocratic European Union. Second, the paper concentrates on Hungary, a semi-peripheral Central European country which has become an epitome of a populist nationalism with increasingly authoritarian traits. Third, the paper focuses on Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Union republic with no significant experience of liberal democracy before independence, and a key example of the ‘traditional authoritarian’ variety. The three varieties, however, are sometimes combined and coexisting, and their evolution will be decisive for the future of capitalism and liberal democracy.
{"title":"Three varieties of Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Rule by the experts, the people, the leader","authors":"E. Gallo","doi":"10.1177/10245294211038425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211038425","url":null,"abstract":"Neoliberalism and authoritarianism are intimately connected, as is demonstrated by the existence of a growing body of literature on ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’. This article provides a taxonomy of authoritarian neoliberalism and claims that it appears in three varieties – technocracy, populist nationalism, and traditional authoritarianism. Also, it proposes both an overview of the varieties and an analysis of three states as case studies. States are investigated as actors which strongly contribute to the neoliberal project amidst a more complex process of multilocalized and variegated neoliberalizations, which have to be incorporated into the comparative research. First, Italy is studied as a consolidated Western democracy which has been often governed by technocrats, independent, non-party professionals who have recurrently been in power since the 1990s, and within the frame of an increasingly technocratic European Union. Second, the paper concentrates on Hungary, a semi-peripheral Central European country which has become an epitome of a populist nationalism with increasingly authoritarian traits. Third, the paper focuses on Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Union republic with no significant experience of liberal democracy before independence, and a key example of the ‘traditional authoritarian’ variety. The three varieties, however, are sometimes combined and coexisting, and their evolution will be decisive for the future of capitalism and liberal democracy.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"554 - 574"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44277077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-29DOI: 10.1177/10245294211031051
Felix Syrovatka
The architecture of European labour policy has changed in the past years of the euro crisis and its management. While in the pre-crisis phase EU labour policy still had a mainly symbolic character, the EU crisis management gave it a much more binding character. The article analyses the continuities and shifts in European labour policy against the background of austerity and crisis policy arguing that a new labour policy complex was able to emerge at the European level. While institutional shifts were considerable, the market-liberal orientation of labour policy remained in place. However, it was radicalized with the resilience approach. The article therefore provides an overview of the continuity and change of European labour policy in the euro crisis on the basis of institutional and discursive shifts.
{"title":"The emergence of a New European Labour Policy regime: Continuity and change since the euro crisis","authors":"Felix Syrovatka","doi":"10.1177/10245294211031051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211031051","url":null,"abstract":"The architecture of European labour policy has changed in the past years of the euro crisis and its management. While in the pre-crisis phase EU labour policy still had a mainly symbolic character, the EU crisis management gave it a much more binding character. The article analyses the continuities and shifts in European labour policy against the background of austerity and crisis policy arguing that a new labour policy complex was able to emerge at the European level. While institutional shifts were considerable, the market-liberal orientation of labour policy remained in place. However, it was radicalized with the resilience approach. The article therefore provides an overview of the continuity and change of European labour policy in the euro crisis on the basis of institutional and discursive shifts.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"575 - 602"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211031051","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65649041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-08DOI: 10.1177/10245294211029790
J. Gruin, Pascale Massot
Contemporary markets are evolving in numerous ways that affect their structure, dynamics and consequences. Yet while the concept of the market is central to comparative, international and global political economy, there exists no concerted body of literature dedicated to debating and articulating different conceptions of the market and that critically self-reflects on how these empirical transformations are intersecting with the central theoretical concerns of political economy: power, contestation and change. This special issue enriches the debate by looking to decentre the concept of the market from its traditional home in mainstream neoclassical/liberal political economy. Western-centric conceptualizations of the market based on a minimal atomistic classical definition have dominated international economic discourses but it is becoming increasingly clear that different understandings of markets and the functions they serve are crystalizing between market stakeholders at the global level. This special issue addresses these concerns via the historicization of the concept of the market, the development and refinement of the concept of the market, as well as the decentring of the concept of the market via empirical studies of global market change informed by an awareness of the political, economic, social and cultural embeddedness of markets. In so doing, the special issue leverages the insights of global political economy and cognate disciplines to achieve richer insights into the analytical potential of the concept of the market.
{"title":"Conceptualizing contemporary markets: Introduction to the special issue","authors":"J. Gruin, Pascale Massot","doi":"10.1177/10245294211029790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211029790","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary markets are evolving in numerous ways that affect their structure, dynamics and consequences. Yet while the concept of the market is central to comparative, international and global political economy, there exists no concerted body of literature dedicated to debating and articulating different conceptions of the market and that critically self-reflects on how these empirical transformations are intersecting with the central theoretical concerns of political economy: power, contestation and change. This special issue enriches the debate by looking to decentre the concept of the market from its traditional home in mainstream neoclassical/liberal political economy. Western-centric conceptualizations of the market based on a minimal atomistic classical definition have dominated international economic discourses but it is becoming increasingly clear that different understandings of markets and the functions they serve are crystalizing between market stakeholders at the global level. This special issue addresses these concerns via the historicization of the concept of the market, the development and refinement of the concept of the market, as well as the decentring of the concept of the market via empirical studies of global market change informed by an awareness of the political, economic, social and cultural embeddedness of markets. In so doing, the special issue leverages the insights of global political economy and cognate disciplines to achieve richer insights into the analytical potential of the concept of the market.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"25 1","pages":"507 - 516"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211029790","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43480952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0005
Niklas Bomark, Peter Edlund, Stefan Arora-Jonsson
The past decades have seen numerous attempts to introduce competition into new sectors of society, but we still know little about the processes by which competition is realized in a new setting. We study three decades of organizational efforts of a Swedish municipality that sought to introduce competition for students among its upper secondary schools following a national reform in the early 1990s. Our study shows that declaring competition was far from sufficient for its realization; the path to competition was lined with hesitation, uncertainty, and a rich variety of organizational challenges to be overcome. One particularly vexing challenge was to convince the principals of the schools that they should view each other as competitors for students. Our findings contribute to previous literature by demonstrating that competition need not be a prerequisite for choice; that several organizers of competition may operate at once; and, more generally, that competition is introduced through stepwise, piecemeal processes.
{"title":"Convincing others that they are competing: the case of schools","authors":"Niklas Bomark, Peter Edlund, Stefan Arora-Jonsson","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The past decades have seen numerous attempts to introduce competition into new sectors of society, but we still know little about the processes by which competition is realized in a new setting. We study three decades of organizational efforts of a Swedish municipality that sought to introduce competition for students among its upper secondary schools following a national reform in the early 1990s. Our study shows that declaring competition was far from sufficient for its realization; the path to competition was lined with hesitation, uncertainty, and a rich variety of organizational challenges to be overcome. One particularly vexing challenge was to convince the principals of the schools that they should view each other as competitors for students. Our findings contribute to previous literature by demonstrating that competition need not be a prerequisite for choice; that several organizers of competition may operate at once; and, more generally, that competition is introduced through stepwise, piecemeal processes.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75516003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0010
S. Christensen, H. Knudsen
This chapter explores current ambivalences towards using competition between students as a means to intensify learning. The analysis builds on a case study from a Danish school where games are used to motivate second graders to maximize their learning. The current learning paradigm views the intensity of competition as desirable for motivational purposes. At the same time, the downsides of competition are seemingly avoided because there is no scarcity of prizes and therefore no losers. It becomes an open question whether game-playing is in fact competition or not. Individual students must therefore decide themselves whether competing is the most effective way of sustaining their learning. The analysis concludes that current ambivalences towards competition do not primarily stem from a care for cooperation and community but from a care for the individual’s maximized learning. Theoretically, the chapter introduces the notion of side-glance to understand competition as a form of observation.
{"title":"The organization of competition and non-competition in schools","authors":"S. Christensen, H. Knudsen","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores current ambivalences towards using competition between students as a means to intensify learning. The analysis builds on a case study from a Danish school where games are used to motivate second graders to maximize their learning. The current learning paradigm views the intensity of competition as desirable for motivational purposes. At the same time, the downsides of competition are seemingly avoided because there is no scarcity of prizes and therefore no losers. It becomes an open question whether game-playing is in fact competition or not. Individual students must therefore decide themselves whether competing is the most effective way of sustaining their learning. The analysis concludes that current ambivalences towards competition do not primarily stem from a care for cooperation and community but from a care for the individual’s maximized learning. Theoretically, the chapter introduces the notion of side-glance to understand competition as a form of observation.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"352 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80061178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0013
Sebastian Kohl, Abraham Sapién
This chapter draws on conceptual resources from debates on collective intentionality and responsibility to call into question the close links between competition, ontological atomism, and individual responsibility implied by meritocracy. Against this ‘holy trinity’, we argue that competition is not reducible to an ontology of atomized agents and individual notions of responsibility, which supposedly justify meritocratic justifications of unequal outcomes in competition. By offering a non-individualist concept of competition, we argue that competitive actions are collective and relational. As a result, responsibility in competition is much more shared between competitors and within competitive teams than is commonly thought. This argument implies that the collective foundations of competition should be more appreciated and that the redistribution of recognition among winners and losers in competition should be reconsidered.
{"title":"Debunking the holy trinity: competition, individualism, and meritocracy","authors":"Sebastian Kohl, Abraham Sapién","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter draws on conceptual resources from debates on collective intentionality and responsibility to call into question the close links between competition, ontological atomism, and individual responsibility implied by meritocracy. Against this ‘holy trinity’, we argue that competition is not reducible to an ontology of atomized agents and individual notions of responsibility, which supposedly justify meritocratic justifications of unequal outcomes in competition. By offering a non-individualist concept of competition, we argue that competitive actions are collective and relational. As a result, responsibility in competition is much more shared between competitors and within competitive teams than is commonly thought. This argument implies that the collective foundations of competition should be more appreciated and that the redistribution of recognition among winners and losers in competition should be reconsidered.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84084335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0011
K. Lagerström, Emilene Leite, Cecilia Pahlberg, R. Schweizer
In this chapter we investigate the organization of competition among subunits in multinational corporations (MNCs) with the intent to explore how headquarters encourages and organizes for competition and when and why competition is handled by subunits that cooperate. The organization of competition by headquarters among the subunits is characterized by special conditions due to the formal hierarchical organization and access to legitimate tools to instil competition. Competition arises around three sources: allocation of resources, system position and headquarters attention, and the allocation of subsidiary mandates. Empirical findings from six MNCs are used to illustrate the adoption of cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours among subunits as outcomes of headquarters implementation of different tools to organize for competition. The findings also show that headquarters is not only a fourth—but also a third—party as it adjudicates many of the competitive situations that it organizes among its units.
{"title":"Cooperating while competing in multinational corporations","authors":"K. Lagerström, Emilene Leite, Cecilia Pahlberg, R. Schweizer","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898012.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter we investigate the organization of competition among subunits in multinational corporations (MNCs) with the intent to explore how headquarters encourages and organizes for competition and when and why competition is handled by subunits that cooperate. The organization of competition by headquarters among the subunits is characterized by special conditions due to the formal hierarchical organization and access to legitimate tools to instil competition. Competition arises around three sources: allocation of resources, system position and headquarters attention, and the allocation of subsidiary mandates. Empirical findings from six MNCs are used to illustrate the adoption of cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours among subunits as outcomes of headquarters implementation of different tools to organize for competition. The findings also show that headquarters is not only a fourth—but also a third—party as it adjudicates many of the competitive situations that it organizes among its units.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90326324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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