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Recorded at: Second International Marxist-Feminist Conference
On: 8th October 2016
Panel: Marxist-Feminist Theory
Full Title:
Luxemburgian Critique of Political Economy: From the Theory of Accumulation to Social Reproduction Theory
The Conference was organised by the feminist section of InkriT (Berlin Institute of Critical Theory) http://www.inkrit.de, transform! europe http://www.transform-network.net, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation rosalux.de and many others.
Luxemburgian Critique of Political Economy: from the Theory of Accumulation to Social Reproduction Theory
Abstract Rosa Luxemburg claims that imperialism in general represents a specific mode of accumulation. That position represents the starting point for her theory of expanded reproduction, as well as her critique of Marx, which we will both present here. Our text is divided into two parts. The first part offers an overview of Luxemburg’s critique of political economy along three points which represent the critique of Marx: (1) external trade, (2) formula for the value composition of commodities = c + v + s and (3) the problem of demand in social reproduction. The second part offers a sketch for ‘Luxemburgian feminism’ consisting of (1) an overview of Luxemburg’s critique of bourgeois feminism and (2) a preliminary application of Luxemburg’s ‘dialectics of spatiality’ on the social reproduction theory. As feminist analyses of Luxemburg’s critique of political economy are rather rare, the first part of the paper overviews the three aforementioned elements of her theory of accumulation in order to connect them to the social reproduction theory in the second part of the paper. We discuss the Luxemburgian critique of political economy as a tool for a materialist analysis of the connections between the household and the market, or more precisely, the link between the methods of capital accumulation and women’s reproductive labour. At a time when systematic analyses of the relation between the market and the state – either at the national or international level – are necessary starting points for a discussion of any short- or long-term alternatives to the capitalist mode of production, Rosa Luxemburg’s dialectics of spatiality and her connection to the social reproduction theory seem to present not only a valuable introductory reference but also the political model best suited to organise alliances among parallel structures and align their progressive goals.
Ankica Čakardić (1977) received her PhD at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb, where she has worked as an assistant professor since 2010 and is now holding the chair of Social Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy. Her research interest lies at the interface of political and social philosophy with an emphasis on the Marxist critique of social contract, intellectual history and philosophy of gender focusing on feminist political economy. She is a coordinator of educational programmes at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb, has edited two books and published numerous academic articles, essays and translations in domestic and international journals and collected volumes. From 2011 to 2013 she was the co-president of the Croatian Philosophical Society. She is a member of FemFront, a Marxist-feminist reading group in Croatia. In 2015 she published ‘Theory of Accumulation and Contemporary Luxemburgian Critique of Political Economy’ in: Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 2 (138), pp. 323-341 and ‘Women’s Struggles and Political Economy: from Yugoslav Self-Management to Neoliberal Austerity’ in: Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism: Radical Politics After Yugoslavia, edited by Srećko Horvat and Igor Štiks, London: Verso
Recorded at: Second International Marxist-Feminist Conference
On: 8th October 2016
Panel: Marxist-Feminist Theory
Full Title:
Luxemburgian Critique of Political Economy: From the Theory of Accumulation to Social Reproduction Theory
The Conference was organised by the feminist section of InkriT (Berlin Institute of Critical Theory) http://www.inkrit.de, transform! europe http://www.transform-network.net, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation rosalux.de and many others.
Luxemburgian Critique of Political Economy: from the Theory of Accumulation to Social Reproduction Theory
Abstract Rosa Luxemburg claims that imperialism in general represents a specific mode of accumulation. That position represents the starting point for her theory of expanded reproduction, as well as her critique of Marx, which we will both present here. Our text is divided into two parts. The first part offers an overview of Luxemburg’s critique of political economy along three points which represent the critique of Marx: (1) external trade, (2) formula for the value composition of commodities = c + v + s and (3) the problem of demand in social reproduction. The second part offers a sketch for ‘Luxemburgian feminism’ consisting of (1) an overview of Luxemburg’s critique of bourgeois feminism and (2) a preliminary application of Luxemburg’s ‘dialectics of spatiality’ on the social reproduction theory. As feminist analyses of Luxemburg’s critique of political economy are rather rare, the first part of the paper overviews the three aforementioned elements of her theory of accumulation in order to connect them to the social reproduction theory in the second part of the paper. We discuss the Luxemburgian critique of political economy as a tool for a materialist analysis of the connections between the household and the market, or more precisely, the link between the methods of capital accumulation and women’s reproductive labour. At a time when systematic analyses of the relation between the market and the state – either at the national or international level – are necessary starting points for a discussion of any short- or long-term alternatives to the capitalist mode of production, Rosa Luxemburg’s dialectics of spatiality and her connection to the social reproduction theory seem to present not only a valuable introductory reference but also the political model best suited to organise alliances among parallel structures and align their progressive goals.
Ankica Čakardić (1977) received her PhD at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb, where she has worked as an assistant professor since 2010 and is now holding the chair of Social Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy. Her research interest lies at the interface of political and social philosophy with an emphasis on the Marxist critique of social contract, intellectual history and philosophy of gender focusing on feminist political economy. She is a coordinator of educational programmes at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb, has edited two books and published numerous academic articles, essays and translations in domestic and international journals and collected volumes. From 2011 to 2013 she was the co-president of the Croatian Philosophical Society. She is a member of FemFront, a Marxist-feminist reading group in Croatia. In 2015 she published ‘Theory of Accumulation and Contemporary Luxemburgian Critique of Political Economy’ in: Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 2 (138), pp. 323-341 and ‘Women’s Struggles and Political Economy: from Yugoslav Self-Management to Neoliberal Austerity’ in: Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism: Radical Politics After Yugoslavia, edited by Srećko Horvat and Igor Štiks, London: Verso
