Giovanni Arrighi provided not only a novel model but also an ambitious, comprehensive genealogy of world-system capitalism (albeit with some loopholes and tensions). Reshuffling Braudel’s view of capitalism as the “top layer” of economic systems with Marx’s classical formula of MCM’, Arrighi emphasized that the nature of “capital”-ism was control and reproduction of capital itself as an end (as the short form MM’ indicates). Thus the spatial-chronological configuration of world-system capitalism could be divided into several extended periods of “hegemony” of particular configurations of capital-controlling economic and political “agencies”, be they chartered companies, joint-stock MNCs or states. The cyclical transitions between Genoese, Dutch, British and US capitalist hegemonies, according to Arrighi, involved initial material expansions, organizational evolutions brought by a combined “backward-forward” development strategy, cooperation coupled with competitions among capitalist powers, followed by massive transferring of capital to financial activities in pursuit of sustainable higher profits. These “long centuries”, marred by “systemic chaos” and “anti-systemic movements”, were marked by signal and terminal crises. Therefore, Arrighi viewed the financial crises of US-led post-WWII economic order as signs of yet another long century entering its end game.
Arrighi’s efforts in synthesizing historical capitalism with organizational shifts, territoriality, hegemony and Marxist theories had been marvelous yet incomplete. Arrighi believed that territorial and capitalist paths of expansion were in constant, dialectic relationship of divergence and mergence, that production models within particular territories of world-systems determined organizational configurations of different financial regimes, and that territorial expansion had enabled the enlargement of world-system viable for capitalism. However, his favor of space-as-flows over space-as-places description of financial development and emphasis of “networks” of financial exchanges and communities had highlighted on the other hand the “non-territoriality”, or the lack of territorial preconditions in emergence and of capitalism. The relationship between territoriality and capitalism, therefore, seemed to be one of constant confinements and jail-breaking. The image of cyclical “hegemony” also deprived the classical Marxist notion of imperialism of much of its political-economic vibrancy (indeed Arrighi suggested elsewhere that imperialism was largely a political concept referring to inter-state political relations and problems of national identities during the period of monopolistic capitalism; see Geometry of Imperialism). Moreover, the relationship between “systemic chaos” and “anti-systemic movements” remained unclear; it seemed the former was referring to lack of management of market and subsequent economic crisis, while the latter meant the consistent proletariat/propertyless class’ countermovement of capitalism. Their emergence within particular “long century” should be better explained. Finally, Arrighi’s model was undermined by its lack of clearer accounts of technological advancements and growth of state capacities. Technological capabilities may well had defined the boundaries of “viable organizational forms” of “capitalist agencies”, and state capacity was also critical in war- and state-making processes which Arrighi deemed as essential components of capitalism expansion.
Arrighi’s Long Twentieth Century and Genealogy of
《漫长的20世纪》热门书评
-
Arrighi’s Long Twentieth Century and Genealogy of
3有用 3无用 功夫熊猫小碗熊 2015-09-14
Giovanni Arrighi provided not only a novel model but also an ambitious, comprehensive genealogy of world-system capitalism (albeit with some loopholes...
-
读阿里吉《漫长的20世纪》
2有用 0无用 政經車間 2015-05-31
1994年,英国Verso出版社出版了阿里吉(Giovanni Arrighi,1937-2009)的代表作The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times(中译本标题为《漫长的20世纪》)。该书在社会科学中...
-
《漫长的20世纪》读书报告
1有用 0无用 希望 2015-04-09
选读的是意大利学者杰奥瓦尼•阿瑞基(Giovanni Arrighi)所著的《漫长的20世纪——金钱、权力与我们社会的根源》(The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times)。 &nbs...
-
我觉得翻译的很烂……或者写的本来就烂。
0有用 4无用 nimei 2009-10-05
自认为对文字语言理解能力还算可以的人,结果看这个译本觉得很费劲,不知道是翻译还是本身写作的问题……...
-
物极必反
0有用 2无用 不求甚解 2012-10-09
成功到顶峰后必然迎来拐点,而之前成功的原因立即变成包袱,变成失败的原因。美国取代英国成为资本主义世界的霸主,依靠的是英国金融资本发展了北美大陆经济,所以美国人的记忆中深深印刻了这样一个“成功经验”:尽量利用别人的钱,发展并保护好自己的产业。因此美国国会成了贸易保护主义的大本营,经常变成华尔街的对头,...