This book arose out of a friendship between a political philosopher and an economic sociologist, and their recognition of an urgent political need to address the extreme inequalities of wealth and power in contemporary societies. It provides a new analysis of what generates inequalities in rights to income, property and public goods in contemporary societies. By critiquing Marx’s foundational theory of exploitation, it moves beyond Marx, both in its analysis of inequality, and in its concept of just distribution. It points to the major historical transformations that create educational and knowledge inequalities, inequalities in rights to public goods that combine with those to private wealth. It argues that asymmetries of economic power are inherently gendered and racialized, and that forms of coercion and slavery are deeply embedded in the histories of capitalism.This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10, Reduced inequalities
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This book analyses what generates the extreme inequalities in rights to income, property and public goods in contemporary societies across the world today.
1 Journeying through Marxism - Mark Harvey2 Marx’s Economy and Beyond - Mark Harvey and Norman Geras3 A Note on Profit and Inequality - Mark Harvey4 Making people work for wages. Instituting the capital-labour exchange in the United Kingdom - Mark Harvey5 Coercive capitalisms: Politico-economies of slavery, indentured labour and debt peonage - Mark Harvey6 The long road to democratic justice and equality - Mark Harvey
Les mer
This book arose out of a friendship between a political philosopher and an economic sociologist, and their recognition of an urgent political need to address the extreme inequalities of wealth and power in contemporary societies. The book provides a new analysis of what generates inequalities in rights to income, property and public goods. It claims to move beyond Marx, both in its analysis of inequality and exploitation, and in its concept of just distribution. In order to do so, it critiques Marx’s foundational Labour Theory of Value and its closed-circuit conception of the economy. It points to the major historical transformations that create educational and knowledge inequalities, inequalities in rights to public goods that combine with those of rights to private wealth. In two historical chapters, it argues that industrial capitalism introduced new forms of coerced labour in the metropolis alongside a huge expansion of slavery and indentured labour in the New World, with forms of bonded labour lasting well into the twentieth century. Only political struggles, rather than any economic logic of capitalism, achieved less punitive forms of employment. It is argued that these were only steps along a long road to challenge asymmetries of economic power and to realise just distribution of the wealth created in society.The book is addressed to a wide audience of fellow citizens, as well as to students of political philosophy, economic sociology, and political economy.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781526143686
Publisert
2019-10-07
Utgiver
Vendor
Manchester University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
138 mm
Dybde
10 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
192

Biographical note

Mark Harvey is Emeritus Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Essex and Honorary Professor, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester

Norman Geras (1943 – 2013), political theorist and Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Manchester