Growth and Crisis: Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and and Analysis
ISBN 978-0-9553159-1-6
Download the full e-book from the link below: please note this is a very large (pdf) file--32 MB, 538 pages.
http://www.nuigalway.ie/ssrc/documents/SSA_Conference_E-Book.pdf
This volumes was assembled from papers prepared for the First International Conference on Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis held in the J.E. Cairnes Graduate School of Business and Public Policy between the 2nd and 4th of November, 2006.
Conference details and digital videos of the papers that have been delivered are available online on our official blog at http://ssagalway.blogspot.com/.
This e-book contains 21 chapters divided into eight parts:
1. Social Structure of Accumulation
2. Theory
3. Finance and Regulation
4. Brazil
5. Globalization, China and Crisis
6. Property and Its Limits
7. India
8. United States and Labour
First Published 2006
Accessed Date: 11th December 2006 (11/12/2006)
Growth and Crisis: Social Structure of Accumulation: Theory and Analysis
Edited by:
Terrence McDonough, Michael Reich, David M. Kotz and Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
ISBN 978-0-9553159-1-6
Digitally published in Galway, Ireland by the Centre for Innovation & Structural Change (CISC) and the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC) at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
List of Contributors:
John Asimakopulos
Robert Boyer
Miguel Bruno
Ricardo Caffé
Ann Davis
Hawa Diawara
Andrew Glyn
Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
Barbara Harriss-White
Enid Hill
Amrita Jairaj
David M. Kotz
Minqi Li
Victor Lippit
Stavros D. Mavroudeas
Terrence J. McDonough
Fidelma Murphy
Emlyn Nardone
Brian O’Boyle
Wendy Olsen
Hindenburgo-Francisco Pires
K. Ravi-Raman
Michael Reich
Samuel Rosenberg
Carlos Salas
William Tabb
Martin Wolfson
Monday, December 11, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
List of Conference Videos organised by presenter's surname
1. The Private Property Elephant: An Anarcho-SSA analysis of globalization
Presented by: Dr. John Asimakopoulos
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 25 min 7 sec
2. The contemporary American SSA in the light of CEOs remuneration evolution
Presented by: Professor Robert Boyer
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 32 min 16 sec
3. The Discourse of Property: Continuity within Transformation
Presented by: Dr. Ann Davis
Date accessed: 15 Nov. 06
Length: 19 min 25 sec
4. The logic of financial crisis in a financialing regime of accumulation : the Brazilian specific case
Presented by: Dr. Hawa Diawara
Date accessed: 14 Nov. 06
Length: 14 min 49 sec
5. Will Marx be Right – China and the World Economy
Presented by: Mr. Andrew Glyn
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 22 min 18 sec
6. Social Structure, Tax Culture and the State : Tamil Nadu, India
Presented by: Professor Barbara Harris-White
Date accessed: 15 Nov. 06
Length: 23 min 6 sec
7. Transitions from Socialism to Capitalism and the Legislation that Seeks to create new social structure of accumulation, with special reference to Egypt
Presented by: Professor Enid Hill
Date accessed: 12 Nov. 06
Length: 29 min 56 sec
8. Institutional Structure or Social Structure of Accumulation?
Presented by: Prof. David M. Kotz
Date accessed: 11 Nov. 06
Length: 27 min 41 sec
9. Capitalism with Zero Profit Rate?: Limits to Growth and the Law of the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall
Presented by: Dr. Minqi Li
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 25 min 5 sec
10. Social Structure of Accumulation Theory
Presented by: Professor Victor D. Lippit
Date accessed: 12 Nov. 06
Length: 21 min 23 sec
11.Regulation Theory and the Social Structures of Accumulation: A Critical comparison
Presented by: Dr. Stavros D. Mavroudeas
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 25 min 0 sec
12. SSA Theory: The State of the Art
Presented by: Dr. Terrence McDonough
Date accessed: 06 Nov. 06
Length: 30 min18 sec
13. Internationally Segmented Labour Markets and Maquiladoras of the Auto Industry – The Effects of Spatialisation on Capital/Labour Relations in the US and Mexico
Presented by: Ms. Fidelma Murphy
Date accessed: 15 Nov. 06
Length: 16 min 32sec
14. Examining the Role of ‘State-Like’ Structures in Facilitating Global Accumulation Processes.
Presented by: Mr. Emlyn F. Nardone
Date accessed: 14 Nov. 06
Length: 20 min 57 sec
15. The advantages of a Critical Realist SSA theory
Presented by: Mr. Brian O’Boyle
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 14 min 54 sec
16. Indian Tenancy, Moral Reasoning and the Social Structures of Accumulation
Presented by: Dr. Wendy Olsen
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 21 min 57 sec
17. Digital migration and regulation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil
Presented by: Dr. Hindenburgo-Francisco Pires
Date accessed: 14 Nov. 06
Length: 19 min 43 sec
18. Cultivating Crisis?: Unmasking the Social Structures of Accumulation, The Trojan Horse and the Derailment of Democracy in Kerala/India
Presented by: Dr. K Ravi Raman
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 19 min 17 sec
19. Changes in Capitalism since the Reagan Era: a Social Structure of Accumulation Approach
Presented by: Professor Michael Reich , University of California, Berkeley
Date accessed: 10 Nov. 06
Length: 36 min 08 sec
20. Contestation in the New SSA: State and Municipal Minimum Wages and Living Wages
Presented by: Professor Michael Reich , University of California, Berkeley
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 17 min 20 sec
21. Neoliberalism, Deunionization and Labor Flexibility: Components of a New Social Structure of Accumulation for the United States?
Presented by: Professor Samuel Rosenberg , Roosevelt University
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 17 min 58 sec
22.The Centrality of Finance
Presented by: Professor William K. Tabb
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 22 min 49 sec
23. Class, Crisis, and the theory of a Social Structure of Accumulation
Presented by: Professor Martin Wolfson
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 17 min 24 sec
Presented by: Dr. John Asimakopoulos
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 25 min 7 sec
2. The contemporary American SSA in the light of CEOs remuneration evolution
Presented by: Professor Robert Boyer
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 32 min 16 sec
3. The Discourse of Property: Continuity within Transformation
Presented by: Dr. Ann Davis
Date accessed: 15 Nov. 06
Length: 19 min 25 sec
4. The logic of financial crisis in a financialing regime of accumulation : the Brazilian specific case
Presented by: Dr. Hawa Diawara
Date accessed: 14 Nov. 06
Length: 14 min 49 sec
5. Will Marx be Right – China and the World Economy
Presented by: Mr. Andrew Glyn
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 22 min 18 sec
6. Social Structure, Tax Culture and the State : Tamil Nadu, India
Presented by: Professor Barbara Harris-White
Date accessed: 15 Nov. 06
Length: 23 min 6 sec
7. Transitions from Socialism to Capitalism and the Legislation that Seeks to create new social structure of accumulation, with special reference to Egypt
Presented by: Professor Enid Hill
Date accessed: 12 Nov. 06
Length: 29 min 56 sec
8. Institutional Structure or Social Structure of Accumulation?
Presented by: Prof. David M. Kotz
Date accessed: 11 Nov. 06
Length: 27 min 41 sec
9. Capitalism with Zero Profit Rate?: Limits to Growth and the Law of the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall
Presented by: Dr. Minqi Li
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 25 min 5 sec
10. Social Structure of Accumulation Theory
Presented by: Professor Victor D. Lippit
Date accessed: 12 Nov. 06
Length: 21 min 23 sec
11.Regulation Theory and the Social Structures of Accumulation: A Critical comparison
Presented by: Dr. Stavros D. Mavroudeas
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 25 min 0 sec
12. SSA Theory: The State of the Art
Presented by: Dr. Terrence McDonough
Date accessed: 06 Nov. 06
Length: 30 min18 sec
13. Internationally Segmented Labour Markets and Maquiladoras of the Auto Industry – The Effects of Spatialisation on Capital/Labour Relations in the US and Mexico
Presented by: Ms. Fidelma Murphy
Date accessed: 15 Nov. 06
Length: 16 min 32sec
14. Examining the Role of ‘State-Like’ Structures in Facilitating Global Accumulation Processes.
Presented by: Mr. Emlyn F. Nardone
Date accessed: 14 Nov. 06
Length: 20 min 57 sec
15. The advantages of a Critical Realist SSA theory
Presented by: Mr. Brian O’Boyle
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 14 min 54 sec
16. Indian Tenancy, Moral Reasoning and the Social Structures of Accumulation
Presented by: Dr. Wendy Olsen
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 21 min 57 sec
17. Digital migration and regulation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil
Presented by: Dr. Hindenburgo-Francisco Pires
Date accessed: 14 Nov. 06
Length: 19 min 43 sec
18. Cultivating Crisis?: Unmasking the Social Structures of Accumulation, The Trojan Horse and the Derailment of Democracy in Kerala/India
Presented by: Dr. K Ravi Raman
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 19 min 17 sec
19. Changes in Capitalism since the Reagan Era: a Social Structure of Accumulation Approach
Presented by: Professor Michael Reich , University of California, Berkeley
Date accessed: 10 Nov. 06
Length: 36 min 08 sec
20. Contestation in the New SSA: State and Municipal Minimum Wages and Living Wages
Presented by: Professor Michael Reich , University of California, Berkeley
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 17 min 20 sec
21. Neoliberalism, Deunionization and Labor Flexibility: Components of a New Social Structure of Accumulation for the United States?
Presented by: Professor Samuel Rosenberg , Roosevelt University
Date accessed: 16 Nov. 06
Length: 17 min 58 sec
22.The Centrality of Finance
Presented by: Professor William K. Tabb
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 22 min 49 sec
23. Class, Crisis, and the theory of a Social Structure of Accumulation
Presented by: Professor Martin Wolfson
Date accessed: 13 Nov. 06
Length: 17 min 24 sec
Monday, November 06, 2006
Social Structure of Accumulation: Welcome
Niall O'Brolchain is the Mayor of Galway City. He is the first Green Party Mayor in Ireland. This video was recorded during the opening session (3 Nov 2006) of the conference "Growth and Crisis, Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis".
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Growth and Crisis: Social Structure of Accumulation
On behalf of the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), we are honoured to welcome you to the first conference dedicated exclusively to Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis, held in our Cairnes Graduate School of Business and Public Policy between the 2nd and the 4th of November.
The academic committee composed of Terrence McDonough at NUIG, Michael Reich at the University of California, Berkeley, and David Kotz at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst have put together the conference programme, which is also is available online on our official blog at http://ssagalway.blogspot.com/.
This conference is held with the financial support of the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC), the Department of Economics, the Faculty of Commerce, the Faculty of Arts and Computer Services at NUIG. Conference fee, internet access, coffee breaks, lunches, and official dinner are complimentary for presenters and session chairs.
We sincerely hope that your expectations of this conference as a space for exchange and discussion, and of the West of Ireland as an interesting and relaxing destination will be fulfilled.
Best regards,
Terrence McDonough
Conference Chair
General Information
A. Conference Facilities
All the sessions of the conference will take place in the SAC room. The SAC room is located on the ground floor of St Anthony’s building in the National University of Ireland, Galway. St Anthony’s is a listed building which was once a Franciscan convent. It is located on the Newcastle Road. St Anthony’s is part of the J.E. Cairnes Graduate School of business and Public Policy. Further details at: http://www.cairnes.nuigalway.ie/s.nuigalway.ie/
All the sessions of the conference will take place in the SAC room. The SAC room is located on the ground floor of St Anthony’s building in the National University of Ireland, Galway. St Anthony’s is a listed building which was once a Franciscan convent. It is located on the Newcastle Road. St Anthony’s is part of the J.E. Cairnes Graduate School of business and Public Policy. Further details at: http://www.cairnes.nuigalway.ie/s.nuigalway.ie/
The satellite picture below taken from Google Earth contains details of the area and exact location of the St Anthony’s building.
The SAC room is equipped with video beam (for power point presentations), overhead projector (for acetates), and white board. Please bring your presentations in Microsoft compatible file either on a USB memory stick or on CD rom. You can project it from your own laptop, or email it to us and we can upload it on the conference laptop. If you are using acetates, bring them with you. If you have your paper finalised bring copies to be distributed to participants, or email it to us, so we can include it in the conference e-book.
The conference will be entirely video recorded, and it will be broadcast through the internet. Participants will be asked to sign a consent form for videos and photographs taken during the conference.
B. Registration and Reception
The conference registration desk will operate from 5:30 pm until 7 p.m. on Thursday the 2nd of November. The registration desk will be located at the main entrance of the J.E. Cairnes Graduate School of Business and Social Policy. Reception and finger food will take place in Friars restaurant between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
C. Access to internet
We have arranged temporary access to our computer suites. They are equipped with -PC- computers with connection to Internet, and a large range of software.
The conference will be entirely video recorded, and it will be broadcast through the internet. Participants will be asked to sign a consent form for videos and photographs taken during the conference.
B. Registration and Reception
The conference registration desk will operate from 5:30 pm until 7 p.m. on Thursday the 2nd of November. The registration desk will be located at the main entrance of the J.E. Cairnes Graduate School of Business and Social Policy. Reception and finger food will take place in Friars restaurant between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
C. Access to internet
We have arranged temporary access to our computer suites. They are equipped with -PC- computers with connection to Internet, and a large range of software.
For information on computer suites locations and software installed do check http://www.nuigalway.ie/administration_services/computer_services/suites/
D. Money Exchange
D. Money Exchange
€ 1 = US $ 1.25 (approximately). For updated information on international currency exchange rate check http://finance.yahoo.com/currency
There are automatic cash machines located at the National University of Ireland, Galway. However, this facility is not available in the Cairnes School of Business and Public Policy.
You can exchange your currency and traveller checks into Euro at local banks. Banks in Ireland are open from 10:00 till 16:00 Monday to Friday.
E. Coffee Breaks, Lunches and Official Dinner
Selection of tea/coffee and biscuits during coffee breaks and courtesy ‘a la carte’ lunch service are included for presenters and session chairs at the Friars restaurant. If you have dietary requirements please inform to us in advance, and we will inform the caterers to make special provisions.
The official dinner will be in the Kirwan Lane Restaurant on Friday the 3rd of November at 7:30 p.m.
The satellite picture below taken from Google Earth contains a visual location of the Kirwan Lane Restaurant.
F. Conference Governance
Participants for this conference were invited to submit papers which were reviewed by the conference’s academic committee. The academic committee for this conference was composed of Dr. Terrence McDonough at NUIG, Prof. Michael Reich at the University of California, Berkeley, and Prof. David Kotz at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The conference was generously financially sponsored by the National University of Ireland, Galway. Conference dinner and conference organisation were sponsored by the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC). Coffee breaks were sponsored by the Department of Economics. Lunches were funded by the Faculty of Commerce and the Faculty of Arts. Computer Services sponsored internet access for participants. The Centre of Innovation & Structural Change (CISC) through funding provided by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (IRCHSS) contributed conference materials and publication. And the Vice-Presidency of Research and its Millennium Fund partially contributed to the travel expenses of Prof. David M. Kotz; Prof. William K. Tabb; Prof. John Asimakopoulos; Prof. Hidenburgo Francisco Pires, and Dr. Ravi Raman.
Neither the organisers nor the National University of Ireland, Galway is liable for any losses, accidents or damages to persons or objects, regardless the cause. Participants attend the conference and organised events at their own risk and responsibility.
G. Telephone access
A public telephone which uses Euro coins is located outside the SAC room where the conference session will take place.
We recommend confirming roaming services to Ireland with your mobile network provider.
H. Tourist Information
For tourist information on Galway City and the West of Ireland visit our official blog http://togalway.blogspot.com/
Participants for this conference were invited to submit papers which were reviewed by the conference’s academic committee. The academic committee for this conference was composed of Dr. Terrence McDonough at NUIG, Prof. Michael Reich at the University of California, Berkeley, and Prof. David Kotz at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The conference was generously financially sponsored by the National University of Ireland, Galway. Conference dinner and conference organisation were sponsored by the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC). Coffee breaks were sponsored by the Department of Economics. Lunches were funded by the Faculty of Commerce and the Faculty of Arts. Computer Services sponsored internet access for participants. The Centre of Innovation & Structural Change (CISC) through funding provided by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (IRCHSS) contributed conference materials and publication. And the Vice-Presidency of Research and its Millennium Fund partially contributed to the travel expenses of Prof. David M. Kotz; Prof. William K. Tabb; Prof. John Asimakopoulos; Prof. Hidenburgo Francisco Pires, and Dr. Ravi Raman.
Neither the organisers nor the National University of Ireland, Galway is liable for any losses, accidents or damages to persons or objects, regardless the cause. Participants attend the conference and organised events at their own risk and responsibility.
G. Telephone access
A public telephone which uses Euro coins is located outside the SAC room where the conference session will take place.
We recommend confirming roaming services to Ireland with your mobile network provider.
H. Tourist Information
For tourist information on Galway City and the West of Ireland visit our official blog http://togalway.blogspot.com/
Paper Abstracts
A. The Private Property Elephant: An Anarcho-SSA analysis of globalization
Presented by: Dr. John Asimakopoulos
Email: john.asimakopoulos@bcc.cuny.edu
New SSAs are forming in the sphere of production on global segmentation of labor and neoliberal trade regimes. These SSAs lack a corresponding regime for consumption unlike their Fordist era counterpart due to an extensive victory of capital over labor. This results in inadequate purchasing power within developed nations for whom global production is intended, raising the potential of global stagnation and rising inequality. Globalization is re-examined through an Anarcho-SSA framework providing a working theory of evolutionary anarchist epoch change achieving dramatic global expansion and reduced inequality by altering existing property relations.
B. The contemporary American SSA in the light of CEOs remuneration evolution
Presented by: Professor Robert Boyer
Email: boyer@pse.ens.fr
The explosion of CEOs remuneration during the 90s and the persistence of unprecedented levels in the 2000s is used as an evidence of the emergence of a finance led SSA or accumulation regime in the terms of régulation theory. It is argued that the diffusion of stock-options and financial market related incentives, that were supposed to discipline managers, have entitled them to convert their intrinsic power into remuneration and wealth, both at the micro and macro levels. This is the outcome of a de facto alliance of executives with financiers, who have thus exploited the long run erosion of wage earners’ bargaining power. This de facto institutional compromise has been structuring a new accumulation regime, quite specific to the US. It is not clear that this regime should or could diffuse all over the world, since it is highly specific to the US economy, even if the diffusion of stock options and financialisation has been quite general, but not so strong, in other OECD countries.
C. Finance-led Growth Regime in Brazil: a ‘regulationist’ analysis of the liberalization period
Presented by: Dr. Miguel-Antonio Pinho Bruno and Dr. Ricardo Dantas Caffé
Email: mbruno@ibge.gov.br; ricardo.caffe@gmail.com
Three main tendencies can be identified in an analysis of the long term evolution of the Brazilian economy: a) a persistent fall in the participation of the fixed and productive capital in the stock of the total fixed capital; b) the increase of participation of the financial income in the GDP (rentier share) since the introduction of the Real Plan; and as a direct result of this; c) the tendency to a low and unstable economic growth. Brazilian economy is led astray from a powerful growth trajectory, at an average rate of 7%, starting from 1980, and faces great difficulty in recuperating it under the present growth regime. It has been more than twenty-five years of low levels of growth, at an average rate of 2.3% per year, during the period 1980-2004. To explain the causes of such an unfavorable performance, the paper presents an analysis of the post-liberalization period, using a theoretical and methodological approach as proposed by the French Theory of Regulation. The empirical evidences reinforce the hypothesis that the low rates of accumulation of productive fixed capital in the current economy is one of the main consequences of the present and particular finance-led growth of the Brazilian regime.
D. The Discourse of Property: Continuity within Transformation
Presented by: Dr. Ann Davis
Email: Ann.davis@marist.edu
The discourse of property has been used to legitimate the market economy. Although forms of property have changed, the rhetoric has provided a basic rationale for capitalism in terms of individual freedom and countervailing power with respect to a centralized, expropriating government (Milton Friedman; Douglass North). Given a republican form of government, the success of this discourse depends on a relatively wide distribution, even as the form of property has changed from land and labor, to finance, in distinct periods.
Individualism and individual private property have been mutually constituting. Property supports the independence of the individual, without which individual autonomy is not possible. The government in turn distributes, supports, and regulates the individual private property, which in many circumstances is contradictory.
E. The logic of financial crisis in a financialing regime of accumulation : the Brazilian specific case
Presented by: Dr. Hawa Diawara
Email: diawara7@yahoo.fr
In this article, I study the question of financial crisis for the case of Brazil underlining the interactions between the monetary policy, the evolution of macroeconomics indicators and the financial market anticipation (or the “extern credibility”). I use Kalecki’s approach of growth and the concept of money in the theory of Regulation to analyse these interactions. I show that the question of financial crisis in a country like Brazil (with a strong external constraint) reveals the problem of monetary sovereignty, so it is neither a question of “market” imperfection” nor a lack of “prudential governance” as opposed to the conventional theory.
F. Will Marx be Right – China and the World Economy
Presented by: Mr. Andrew Glyn
Email: andrew.glyn@ccc.ox.ac.uk
The paper discusses the implications of the extraordinary growth and integration into the world economy of China. It examines the quantitative scale of these developments and then considers what are in the implications for workers in the developed economies of the fact that capital now has access to a “reserve army of labour” of a quite unprecedented size?
Presented by: Dr. John Asimakopoulos
Email: john.asimakopoulos@bcc.cuny.edu
New SSAs are forming in the sphere of production on global segmentation of labor and neoliberal trade regimes. These SSAs lack a corresponding regime for consumption unlike their Fordist era counterpart due to an extensive victory of capital over labor. This results in inadequate purchasing power within developed nations for whom global production is intended, raising the potential of global stagnation and rising inequality. Globalization is re-examined through an Anarcho-SSA framework providing a working theory of evolutionary anarchist epoch change achieving dramatic global expansion and reduced inequality by altering existing property relations.
B. The contemporary American SSA in the light of CEOs remuneration evolution
Presented by: Professor Robert Boyer
Email: boyer@pse.ens.fr
The explosion of CEOs remuneration during the 90s and the persistence of unprecedented levels in the 2000s is used as an evidence of the emergence of a finance led SSA or accumulation regime in the terms of régulation theory. It is argued that the diffusion of stock-options and financial market related incentives, that were supposed to discipline managers, have entitled them to convert their intrinsic power into remuneration and wealth, both at the micro and macro levels. This is the outcome of a de facto alliance of executives with financiers, who have thus exploited the long run erosion of wage earners’ bargaining power. This de facto institutional compromise has been structuring a new accumulation regime, quite specific to the US. It is not clear that this regime should or could diffuse all over the world, since it is highly specific to the US economy, even if the diffusion of stock options and financialisation has been quite general, but not so strong, in other OECD countries.
C. Finance-led Growth Regime in Brazil: a ‘regulationist’ analysis of the liberalization period
Presented by: Dr. Miguel-Antonio Pinho Bruno and Dr. Ricardo Dantas Caffé
Email: mbruno@ibge.gov.br; ricardo.caffe@gmail.com
Three main tendencies can be identified in an analysis of the long term evolution of the Brazilian economy: a) a persistent fall in the participation of the fixed and productive capital in the stock of the total fixed capital; b) the increase of participation of the financial income in the GDP (rentier share) since the introduction of the Real Plan; and as a direct result of this; c) the tendency to a low and unstable economic growth. Brazilian economy is led astray from a powerful growth trajectory, at an average rate of 7%, starting from 1980, and faces great difficulty in recuperating it under the present growth regime. It has been more than twenty-five years of low levels of growth, at an average rate of 2.3% per year, during the period 1980-2004. To explain the causes of such an unfavorable performance, the paper presents an analysis of the post-liberalization period, using a theoretical and methodological approach as proposed by the French Theory of Regulation. The empirical evidences reinforce the hypothesis that the low rates of accumulation of productive fixed capital in the current economy is one of the main consequences of the present and particular finance-led growth of the Brazilian regime.
D. The Discourse of Property: Continuity within Transformation
Presented by: Dr. Ann Davis
Email: Ann.davis@marist.edu
The discourse of property has been used to legitimate the market economy. Although forms of property have changed, the rhetoric has provided a basic rationale for capitalism in terms of individual freedom and countervailing power with respect to a centralized, expropriating government (Milton Friedman; Douglass North). Given a republican form of government, the success of this discourse depends on a relatively wide distribution, even as the form of property has changed from land and labor, to finance, in distinct periods.
Individualism and individual private property have been mutually constituting. Property supports the independence of the individual, without which individual autonomy is not possible. The government in turn distributes, supports, and regulates the individual private property, which in many circumstances is contradictory.
E. The logic of financial crisis in a financialing regime of accumulation : the Brazilian specific case
Presented by: Dr. Hawa Diawara
Email: diawara7@yahoo.fr
In this article, I study the question of financial crisis for the case of Brazil underlining the interactions between the monetary policy, the evolution of macroeconomics indicators and the financial market anticipation (or the “extern credibility”). I use Kalecki’s approach of growth and the concept of money in the theory of Regulation to analyse these interactions. I show that the question of financial crisis in a country like Brazil (with a strong external constraint) reveals the problem of monetary sovereignty, so it is neither a question of “market” imperfection” nor a lack of “prudential governance” as opposed to the conventional theory.
F. Will Marx be Right – China and the World Economy
Presented by: Mr. Andrew Glyn
Email: andrew.glyn@ccc.ox.ac.uk
The paper discusses the implications of the extraordinary growth and integration into the world economy of China. It examines the quantitative scale of these developments and then considers what are in the implications for workers in the developed economies of the fact that capital now has access to a “reserve army of labour” of a quite unprecedented size?
G. Corporate Social Responsibility as a form of transnational regulation?
Presented by: Ms. Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
Email: magonzalez@nuigalway.ie
As a consequence of the demands for responsible business social and environmental behaviour by civil society actors and organisations in consumer markets, the establishment and development of a matrix of norms and institutions for legitimisation and accountability of firms’ practices with both local and transnational representation has been stimulated. Social and environmental market entry regulations enforce a systematic approach to civil society concerns across value chains and production networks. The interconnectedness of the local and the global due to the evolution of information and communication technologies has facilitated the development of transnational networks; hence the processes of representation of economically and socially marginalised groups on consumer markets have also transnationalized. The replication of transnational dynamics in local settings and the traceable impact on individuals of global changes, requires social responsibility networks for the co-evolution of diverse forms socio-economic integration. Productive wealth creation in society as a social, political and ideological process requires for its understanding a mapping of its social structures of accumulation (SSA). This paper uses concepts from SSA theory to describe the emerging social responsibility networks (SNR) in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
H. Social Structure, Tax Culture and the State : Tamil Nadu, India
Presented by: Professor Barbara Harris-White and Amrita Jairaj
Email: barbara.harriss-white@qeh.ox.ac.uk; amritajairaj@gmail.com
Tax – the compulsory collection of money (and occasionally goods or services) - is a prime source of revenue for the state, and a prime mover of public expenditure. In India, net revenue is 6% of GDP. The political process of taxation is thought to be a fine summary indicator of state legitimacy and governance capacity. However, while in OECD countries this notion is an open social fact and tax is a prominent aspect of electoral politics, elsewhere it disappears - along with scholarship on the subject. This essay seeks to go a small way to remedy this neglect.
It also contributes to a small school of work in Oxford which is challenging the routine tendency to analyse the state without reference to society, and seeks to explore through field research the ways in which the organisation and practices of the state, the market and institutions of civil society are embedded in social structures of accumulation in which social identity can and usually does play important roles.
I. Institutional Structure or Social Structure of Accumulation?
Presented by: Prof. David M. Kotz
Email: dmkotz@econs.umass.edu
The key insight of the social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory is that capitalism requires a relatively durable set of integrated institutions, or institutional structure (IS), to operate smoothly, but over long periods of time such an IS decays and collapses, to be replaced eventually by a new IS. During its lifetime such an IS facilitates the circuit of capital and the appropriation of surplus value, as the early SSA literature noted. This insight has been very useful for several purposes, including the following: 1) analyzing the character of accumulation and crisis in particular time periods; 2) analyzing the evolution of capitalist institutional structures over time; 3) comparing different institutional forms of capitalism across countries.
The SSA theory also asserted that IS's are directed at promoting rapid capital accumulation. This was linked to the idea that this theory can explain long swings in capital accumulation. Indeed, the role of institutions in promoting accumulation became the defining feature of the SSA theory, as indicated by the term "SSA."
This paper argues that the key interest of the capitalist class is the appropriation of surplus value. According to this view, capitalists are driven to increase their wealth by putting surplus value in a form that will expand in value, but this can be done either via real accumulation or various financial/speculative means of increasing wealth. Competitive pressures tend to promote real accumulation while other factors, such as heightened uncertainty or a low expected rate of profit, tend to discourage it. However, real accumulation per se is not a goal of the capitalist. Rapid accumulation can contribute to the survival of capitalism as a system, but that does not imply that rapid accumulation is the central organizing principle of institutional evolution under capitalism.
The formulation of the SSA theory in the late 1970s and early 1980s may have been influenced by two empirical considerations that would appear to support the view that IS's are constructed to promote rapid accumulation. First, in the transition period between two IS's, the absence of a well-defined IS to facilitate the circuit of capital and the appropriation of surplus value is likely to interfere with accumulation. Hence, one may observe that accumulation is typically faster in periods having a coherent IS than in the transition phases. This could lead one to infer that each IS is geared toward promoting accumulation, yet the reality may be that an IS is built to support appropriation of surplus value rather than accumulation per se.
The second empirical consideration is that, in the U.S., the sequence of SSA's from the first one in the mid 1800s through the third SSA in the post World War II decades shows a growing role for state regulation. If state regulation is favorable for accumulation, then an increased growth rate with each new IS would generate a long swing pattern over that period. However, this pattern was broken with the rise of the neoliberal model after 1979.
This paper argues that the neoliberal model, which has been dominant since the end of the 1970s, is a coherent IS yet is not favorable for capital accumulation. That a coherent IS can persist for some 25 years despite its failure to promote rapid accumulation suggests that some reformulation of the SSA theory may be called for. Finally, the paper argues that IS's come in two varieties, liberal and regulationist. It analyzes the differences between the two types of IS and considers the factors that lead to the emergence of each type.
J. Capitalism with Zero Profit Rate?: Limits to Growth and the Law of the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall
Presented by: Dr. Minqi Li
E-mail: liminqi@yahoo.com; minqi.li@economics.utah.edu
Capitalism is a socio-economic system that rests upon the endless pursuit of profit and capital accumulation. However, after centuries of relentless capitalist accumulation, resources depletion and environmental crisis have reached the advanced stage. The paper discusses the depletion of fossil fuels, the likely effects of various renewable energies and nuclear energy on the future energy supply, the limits to improvement in energy efficiency, and the depletion of other resources. It relates the limits to growth to Marx’s hypothesis on the “law of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall.” It can be established that if the growth rate falls towards zero, then either the profit rate or the net investment has to fall towards zero. The coming crisis may be seen as the expression of the conflict between the “productive forces” and the “existing relations of production”. The historical constraints and possibilities for the post-capitalist society are discussed.
K. Social Structure of Accumulation Theory
Presented by: Professor Victor D. Lippit
Email: victor.lippit@ucr.edu
In “Interpreting the SSA Theory,” David Kotz (pp. 53-54) addresses a series of questions concerning SSAs. He asks (1) How do they support accumulation? (2) Why the long swing expansion and stagnation phases come to an end? and (3) Why are the two phases taken together so lengthy? In the same book, Terrence McDonough raises similar questions (pp. 72-84) and both advance hypotheses concerning the organizing principles that give structural coherence to SSAs. This essay seeks to address these core issues in SSA theory from a different perspective, one that considers the role played by multiple social conflicts and that takes into account ideas of overdetermination, historical contingency, and internal contradiction. Examples from Japan’s postwar SSA and the two SSAs created in the U.S. since WW II are used to illustrate the argument presented.
L. Regulation Theory and the Social Structures of Accumulation: A Critical comparison
Presented by: Dr. Stavros D. Mavroudeas
Email: smavro@uom.gr
The similarities between the Social Structures of Accumulation perspective and the Regulation Theory are well known and established in the relevant literature. However, most of the comparisons focus on the founding texts of both approaches. During recent years there appear to be significant developments in both of these theories. This paper studies these developments. In particular, it focuses on the issue of periodisation of capitalism and how both the founding texts and recent developments perform in this field. Particular emphasis is given on the evolution of capitalist economies in the last 20 years and the ability of aforementioned theories to grasp them.
M. SSA Theory: The State of the Art
Presented by: Dr. Terrence McDonough
Email: terrence.mcdonough@nuigalway.ie
This paper will comprehensively review the social structure of accumulation (SSA) literature produced over the last decade. It will identify important contributions, trends and theoretical innovations. It will discuss remaining theoretical issues. The paper will also examine developments and convergences with related schools of thought. It will conclude with a brief consideration of the necessity of stage theory in the resolution of controversies raised by the globalization debate.
N. Internationally Segmented Labour Markets and Maquiladoras of the Auto Industry – The Effects of Spatialisation on Capital/Labour Relations in the US and Mexico
Presented by: Ms. Fidelma Murphy
Email: fidelma.murphy@nuigalway.ie
This paper considers the applicability of the Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA) framework at a global level through an investigation of the new SSA and its connection across boundaries as evidenced in evolving capital/labour relations. The Spatialisation School, with its emphasis on the spatial restructuring of work and the reorganisation of labour markets by the transnational capitalist class, reinforces the understanding that SSAs generate differential impacts in different spatial locations. The contribution of this paper is to examine the role of specific capital/labour relations, characterised as they are in the auto industry by internationally segmented labour markets, in connecting this new SSA across borders – specifically those of the US and Mexico. This paper will contend that spatialisation theory, as applied to the auto industry, has a role in identifying qualitative changes in the global conditions of capital-labour relations. Through the use of spatialisation theory; its acknowledgement of labour segmentation, and of the importance of globalisation in affecting qualitative changes in capital/labour relations, a framework is provided in which to investigate newly emergent capital/labour relations of the global neoliberal SSA.
O. Examining the Role of ‘State-Like’ Structures in Facilitating Global Accumulation Processes.
Presented by: Mr. Emlyn F. Nardone
Email: enardone@nuigalway.ie
Social structures of accumulation (SSA) theory has emphasised the role of institutions in creating forms of economic and social stability to further the accumulation process on national levels. However, in the era of global neo-liberalism, these functions of what were traditionally conceived of as ‘nation-state’ institutions have been problematised. The purpose of this paper is to examine and assess the extent and manner of the structural transformations that are taking place and, furthermore to explore the tensions that exist between conventional state institutions on the one hand and the emergence of global ‘state-like’ institutions on the other. Using insights from international political economy and other related disciplines, an attempt will be made to extend the scope of SSA theory in understanding the role of emerging global structures in mediating relationships between capital and labour, capital and citizens and the rivalries that exist between different capital fractions.
P. The advantages of a Critical Realist SSA theory
Presented by: Mr. Brian O’Boyle
Email: b.boyle1@nuigalway.ie
As a theoretically produced account of capitalist accumulation, SSA theory makes foundational assumptions about the real world. However in line with the vast majority of its epistemological counterparts it has failed to adequately elaborate these presuppositions with some deliterious results such as an initial emphasis on technological determinism and occasionally on econometric modelling. Critical Realism seeks to redress this ontological deficiency by making explicit enquiries into the nature of social reality and to the extent that its results confirm the implicit assumptions of the SSA theorists it can form a useful appendage to their approach. Moreover, the model of structure and agency furnished by critical realism can also be useful in pointing to the importance of hegemonic struggles within capitalism, and in highlighting the significance of transformative praxis within structural crises. This not only guards against naturalising capitalist production relations as they move through a ‘succession of relatively stable SSA’s’. But it will also recover the normative elements of SSA theory as an instance of Marxian emancipatory theory.
Q. Indian Tenancy, Moral Reasoning and the Social Structures of Accumulation
Presented by: Dr. Wendy Olsen
Email: Wendy.Olsen@manchester.ac.uk
This paper offers an empirical case study using mixed methods in southern Andhra Pradesh, India. The research is funded by the ESRC via the Global Poverty Research Group.
I also begin from theoretical premises very similar to the social structures of accumulation school, but with a pluralism that opens me up to possibilities of non-capitalist behaviour. I make an ontological assumption that capitalism can penetrate, but not necessarily permeate, daily life. I draw upon feminist theory and critical realist ontology.
The research has suggested that choice models are a poor and limited framework for interpreting tenants’ labour-market behaviour. Indeed, much of their work is conducted without direct remuneration. It is own-work on operational land-holdings. On the other hand, however, structuralist models of ‘constraint’ are also inadequate for considering how people’s labour and work are shaped. Instead, according to the field study in two villages, the quality of work-related relationships is valued in itself. Three aspects of this are central: friendship, family, and flexibility over time. My research strongly supports stressing differentiated agency in the village milieu. Does SSA recognise agency adequately? The tenancy policy literature has a dominant strand in which both Marxist and neoclassical economists join in advocacy that is pro-growth, pro-commodification. This does not do justice to the specificity and richness of the village scene however. In summary, the paper is a moral economy approach to the dynamics of labouring on rented land in south India.
R. Digital migration and regulation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil
Presented by: Dr. Hindenburgo-Francisco Pires
Email: hindenburgo@gmail.com
The thematic of this work represents a new scope of study in the area of Geography. It is affiliated to the research line: "Globalization, Public Policies and Territorial Reorganization" in the Post-Graduate Program in Geography at the Rio de Janeiro State University - UERJ, in the field of knowledge "Cyberspace and Society of the Information". It is also part of the research project “Virtual Structures of Accumulation and Cyberspace: The morphologic production of cyberspace and the appropriation of the informational flows in Brazil ", financed by the Foundation Carlos Chagas Filho for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State – FAPERJ.
This research is a sequence of studies dedicated to the need of conceiving a geographical theory on the new productive forms of accumulation based on technical nets . These nets have enabled the consolidation of virtual structures accumulation and the manifestation of a new social space of communication or sociability, the cyberspace. From this perspective, this work is firstly aimed at analyzing the territorial formation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil, according to the theory of the social structures of accumulation; secondly, it aims at revealing how the processes of regulation and institutionalization of the Internet and the relations of electronic commerce, as planned by the recently created Internet Governance in Brazil (http://www.cg.org.br/) and Executive Committee of Electronic Commerce (http://ce.mdic.gov.br/), are relevant governmental instruments for digital migration and normative management of the territorial flows in Brazilian cyberspace; thirdly, this essay is intended to demonstrate how these two processes contribute to the strategic repositioning of the national states in the South, in face of current digital division and expansion of the electronic commerce and the "immaterial capital"; in the fourth place, to demonstrate the growth of services and the establishment of new network territorial dynamics and the considerable increase in the number of financial transactions through the Internet.
Finally, the establishment of this regulatory landmark is a condition for the consolidation of a paradigm of regional governance that has engendered conditions for the reterritorialization of the virtual structures of accumulation in the Brazilian late capitalism.
S. Neoliberalism, Deunionization and Labor Flexibility: Components of a New Social Structure of Accumulation for the United States?
Presented by: Professor Samuel Rosenberg , Roosevelt University
Email: srosenbe@roosevelt.edu
After the ending of World War II, an institutional framework gradually evolved setting the stage for postwar prosperity in the United States. Stagflation characterized the economy in the 1970s. While not explicitly discussed in these terms, the Reagan administration attempted to create a new institutional framework for economic prosperity, based on neoliberalism. The attack on the state, on the one hand, translated into policies reducing the tax and regulatory burdens faced by business along with the taxes of the wealthy. On the other hand , it also led to a weakening of the minimal social protection policies benefiting workers in general and the poor in particular. Union power was reduced through high aggregate levels of unemployment, increased labor market competition and the reinterpretation of existing industrial relations legislation in a pro-business manner. The market-based conservative strategy was closely aligned with an ongoing corporate restructuring. Facing growing domestic and international competition, U.S. based corporations were trying to become more low-cost producers. Wishing to dominate labor, employers became more adversarial in their relations with their workers over issues of wages, hours and work rules. Contingent labor became more prevalent. Aggressive anti-union management behavior led to a sharp trade union decline.
The Reagan legacy strongly influenced government policy in the 1990s and beyond and the nature of the economic expansion in the 1990s and beyond. Clinton’s social policy carried out the Reagan attack on welfare benefits to its conclusion. Clinton’s labor policy was the least pro-union of any Democratic administration in the post World War II period. Collective bargaining relations remained conflictual and even in long term collective bargaining relationships unions were often on the defensive. Deunionization continued as did the growth of flexible labor. New patterns of labor market segmentation have emerged.
Over the past 25 years, the US economy has steadily expanded, with the exception of two relatively minor recessions. At the same time however, there has been growing economic inequality and increased deprivation. Are neoliberalism, deunionization and labor flexibility components of a new social structure of accumulation for the United States?
T. Cultivating Crisis?: Unmasking the Social Structures of Accumulation, The Trojan Horse and the Derailment of Democracy in Kerala/India
Presented by: Dr. K Ravi Raman
Email: ravi.raman@manchester.ac.uk
World-wide, the operations of the multilateral financial institutions undermine national and local planning processes, and domestic potential for resource mobilisation as well as genuine sustainable development; more importantly, it also undermined domestic democratic processes, all in the name of economic growth and ‘crisis’.
Coming more to the operations of one such multilateral financial insitution – the Manila based Asian Development Bank – India seems to be the immediate target, often attracted by its large size and a pro-liberal government in power. The present paper, however, restricted itself to a single Indian state, Kerala, which has been known not for its minimal state which the neoliberal agenda aims for, but for its wide net of welfare measures which ultimately helped to gain it a reputation as a model worth emulating. However, in this state too, the neoliberal solution appeared – broadly privatisation and deregulation - where the neo-liberal solution for the said ‘crisis’ in finance and development was sought in external borrowing. It is a classic case wherein one would find that the neoliberal ideology has been capable of cultivating an artificial ‘fiscal crisis’ in the domestic economy, and then to interfere, with its own discourse and agenda of development something contingent upon its class-bias and larger orientation towards market orientation and trade-openness. The class bias of the state blinds it to encrypted sources of huge funds from within the region which help foster social structures of accumulation constituted by groups of large business traders, owners of luxury hotels, big planters, gold merchants, liquor barons, forest contractors and so on who form multiple nodes in the power-chain, which ultimately winds its way to the state apparatus. What this boils down to is that growth and fiscal crisis or no, the ADB/WB/IMF-driven structural adjustments and neo liberal reforms are here to stay unless they are politically and economically countered.
U. The Centrality of Finance
Presented by: Professor William K. Tabb
Email: william.tabb@gmail.com
While globalization and neoliberalism have become keywords in the contemporary conjuncture it has been difficult for political economists working in the social structure of accumulation (SSA) perspective to theorize such developments as a coherent new SSA. The first part of this paper briefly suggests the contours of such a new SSA identified as global neoliberalism stressing the centrality of finance to its construction and evolution. A second section explores statistical dimensions of financialization (a term to be defined) in a global perspective and the key role of the United States, its government, institutions, and banks to its development. A third part of the paper considers issues of risk inherent in neoliberal financialization and a fourth the role of the dollar in the global political economy. It is followed by a short conclusion which suggests a larger framing of the present in history.
V. Class, Crisis, and the theory of a Social Structure of Accumulation
Presented by: Professor Martin Wolfson
Email: mwolfson@nd.edu
By most accounts, the postwar social structure of accumulation (SSA) in the United States broke up in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a decade of crisis and struggle, the institutional structure of the postwar SSA was replaced by a free market model that undermined regulatory structures and promoted capital mobility. This model, now dominant globally, is known as neoliberalism.
Does the neoliberal era constitute a new social structure of accumulation? Neoliberalism is a settled institutional structure, yet it has not produced the rapid economic growth that one would associate with a new SSA. To address this puzzle, the paper explores a possible reconceptualization of SSA theory. Rather than defining stages of capitalism as alternating 25-year structures of economic growth and crisis, it suggests alternating structures of regulation and the free market. Rather than the creation of institutional structures based upon the requirements of economic growth, it suggests institutions created as a resolution of class and intra-class conflicts among industry, finance, and labor. It thus views neoliberalism as a stage of capitalism based upon the (temporary) dominance of capital over labor.
Neoliberalism’s subpar economic growth can be traced to problems of overcapacity and underconsumption. Building upon these developments, the paper explores the hypothesis that free market stages of capitalism are ultimately undermined by underconsumption crises, whereas regulatory stages of capitalism (such as the postwar SSA) are vulnerable to profit-squeeze crises.
Presented by: Ms. Maria-Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
Email: magonzalez@nuigalway.ie
As a consequence of the demands for responsible business social and environmental behaviour by civil society actors and organisations in consumer markets, the establishment and development of a matrix of norms and institutions for legitimisation and accountability of firms’ practices with both local and transnational representation has been stimulated. Social and environmental market entry regulations enforce a systematic approach to civil society concerns across value chains and production networks. The interconnectedness of the local and the global due to the evolution of information and communication technologies has facilitated the development of transnational networks; hence the processes of representation of economically and socially marginalised groups on consumer markets have also transnationalized. The replication of transnational dynamics in local settings and the traceable impact on individuals of global changes, requires social responsibility networks for the co-evolution of diverse forms socio-economic integration. Productive wealth creation in society as a social, political and ideological process requires for its understanding a mapping of its social structures of accumulation (SSA). This paper uses concepts from SSA theory to describe the emerging social responsibility networks (SNR) in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
H. Social Structure, Tax Culture and the State : Tamil Nadu, India
Presented by: Professor Barbara Harris-White and Amrita Jairaj
Email: barbara.harriss-white@qeh.ox.ac.uk; amritajairaj@gmail.com
Tax – the compulsory collection of money (and occasionally goods or services) - is a prime source of revenue for the state, and a prime mover of public expenditure. In India, net revenue is 6% of GDP. The political process of taxation is thought to be a fine summary indicator of state legitimacy and governance capacity. However, while in OECD countries this notion is an open social fact and tax is a prominent aspect of electoral politics, elsewhere it disappears - along with scholarship on the subject. This essay seeks to go a small way to remedy this neglect.
It also contributes to a small school of work in Oxford which is challenging the routine tendency to analyse the state without reference to society, and seeks to explore through field research the ways in which the organisation and practices of the state, the market and institutions of civil society are embedded in social structures of accumulation in which social identity can and usually does play important roles.
I. Institutional Structure or Social Structure of Accumulation?
Presented by: Prof. David M. Kotz
Email: dmkotz@econs.umass.edu
The key insight of the social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory is that capitalism requires a relatively durable set of integrated institutions, or institutional structure (IS), to operate smoothly, but over long periods of time such an IS decays and collapses, to be replaced eventually by a new IS. During its lifetime such an IS facilitates the circuit of capital and the appropriation of surplus value, as the early SSA literature noted. This insight has been very useful for several purposes, including the following: 1) analyzing the character of accumulation and crisis in particular time periods; 2) analyzing the evolution of capitalist institutional structures over time; 3) comparing different institutional forms of capitalism across countries.
The SSA theory also asserted that IS's are directed at promoting rapid capital accumulation. This was linked to the idea that this theory can explain long swings in capital accumulation. Indeed, the role of institutions in promoting accumulation became the defining feature of the SSA theory, as indicated by the term "SSA."
This paper argues that the key interest of the capitalist class is the appropriation of surplus value. According to this view, capitalists are driven to increase their wealth by putting surplus value in a form that will expand in value, but this can be done either via real accumulation or various financial/speculative means of increasing wealth. Competitive pressures tend to promote real accumulation while other factors, such as heightened uncertainty or a low expected rate of profit, tend to discourage it. However, real accumulation per se is not a goal of the capitalist. Rapid accumulation can contribute to the survival of capitalism as a system, but that does not imply that rapid accumulation is the central organizing principle of institutional evolution under capitalism.
The formulation of the SSA theory in the late 1970s and early 1980s may have been influenced by two empirical considerations that would appear to support the view that IS's are constructed to promote rapid accumulation. First, in the transition period between two IS's, the absence of a well-defined IS to facilitate the circuit of capital and the appropriation of surplus value is likely to interfere with accumulation. Hence, one may observe that accumulation is typically faster in periods having a coherent IS than in the transition phases. This could lead one to infer that each IS is geared toward promoting accumulation, yet the reality may be that an IS is built to support appropriation of surplus value rather than accumulation per se.
The second empirical consideration is that, in the U.S., the sequence of SSA's from the first one in the mid 1800s through the third SSA in the post World War II decades shows a growing role for state regulation. If state regulation is favorable for accumulation, then an increased growth rate with each new IS would generate a long swing pattern over that period. However, this pattern was broken with the rise of the neoliberal model after 1979.
This paper argues that the neoliberal model, which has been dominant since the end of the 1970s, is a coherent IS yet is not favorable for capital accumulation. That a coherent IS can persist for some 25 years despite its failure to promote rapid accumulation suggests that some reformulation of the SSA theory may be called for. Finally, the paper argues that IS's come in two varieties, liberal and regulationist. It analyzes the differences between the two types of IS and considers the factors that lead to the emergence of each type.
J. Capitalism with Zero Profit Rate?: Limits to Growth and the Law of the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall
Presented by: Dr. Minqi Li
E-mail: liminqi@yahoo.com; minqi.li@economics.utah.edu
Capitalism is a socio-economic system that rests upon the endless pursuit of profit and capital accumulation. However, after centuries of relentless capitalist accumulation, resources depletion and environmental crisis have reached the advanced stage. The paper discusses the depletion of fossil fuels, the likely effects of various renewable energies and nuclear energy on the future energy supply, the limits to improvement in energy efficiency, and the depletion of other resources. It relates the limits to growth to Marx’s hypothesis on the “law of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall.” It can be established that if the growth rate falls towards zero, then either the profit rate or the net investment has to fall towards zero. The coming crisis may be seen as the expression of the conflict between the “productive forces” and the “existing relations of production”. The historical constraints and possibilities for the post-capitalist society are discussed.
K. Social Structure of Accumulation Theory
Presented by: Professor Victor D. Lippit
Email: victor.lippit@ucr.edu
In “Interpreting the SSA Theory,” David Kotz (pp. 53-54) addresses a series of questions concerning SSAs. He asks (1) How do they support accumulation? (2) Why the long swing expansion and stagnation phases come to an end? and (3) Why are the two phases taken together so lengthy? In the same book, Terrence McDonough raises similar questions (pp. 72-84) and both advance hypotheses concerning the organizing principles that give structural coherence to SSAs. This essay seeks to address these core issues in SSA theory from a different perspective, one that considers the role played by multiple social conflicts and that takes into account ideas of overdetermination, historical contingency, and internal contradiction. Examples from Japan’s postwar SSA and the two SSAs created in the U.S. since WW II are used to illustrate the argument presented.
L. Regulation Theory and the Social Structures of Accumulation: A Critical comparison
Presented by: Dr. Stavros D. Mavroudeas
Email: smavro@uom.gr
The similarities between the Social Structures of Accumulation perspective and the Regulation Theory are well known and established in the relevant literature. However, most of the comparisons focus on the founding texts of both approaches. During recent years there appear to be significant developments in both of these theories. This paper studies these developments. In particular, it focuses on the issue of periodisation of capitalism and how both the founding texts and recent developments perform in this field. Particular emphasis is given on the evolution of capitalist economies in the last 20 years and the ability of aforementioned theories to grasp them.
M. SSA Theory: The State of the Art
Presented by: Dr. Terrence McDonough
Email: terrence.mcdonough@nuigalway.ie
This paper will comprehensively review the social structure of accumulation (SSA) literature produced over the last decade. It will identify important contributions, trends and theoretical innovations. It will discuss remaining theoretical issues. The paper will also examine developments and convergences with related schools of thought. It will conclude with a brief consideration of the necessity of stage theory in the resolution of controversies raised by the globalization debate.
N. Internationally Segmented Labour Markets and Maquiladoras of the Auto Industry – The Effects of Spatialisation on Capital/Labour Relations in the US and Mexico
Presented by: Ms. Fidelma Murphy
Email: fidelma.murphy@nuigalway.ie
This paper considers the applicability of the Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA) framework at a global level through an investigation of the new SSA and its connection across boundaries as evidenced in evolving capital/labour relations. The Spatialisation School, with its emphasis on the spatial restructuring of work and the reorganisation of labour markets by the transnational capitalist class, reinforces the understanding that SSAs generate differential impacts in different spatial locations. The contribution of this paper is to examine the role of specific capital/labour relations, characterised as they are in the auto industry by internationally segmented labour markets, in connecting this new SSA across borders – specifically those of the US and Mexico. This paper will contend that spatialisation theory, as applied to the auto industry, has a role in identifying qualitative changes in the global conditions of capital-labour relations. Through the use of spatialisation theory; its acknowledgement of labour segmentation, and of the importance of globalisation in affecting qualitative changes in capital/labour relations, a framework is provided in which to investigate newly emergent capital/labour relations of the global neoliberal SSA.
O. Examining the Role of ‘State-Like’ Structures in Facilitating Global Accumulation Processes.
Presented by: Mr. Emlyn F. Nardone
Email: enardone@nuigalway.ie
Social structures of accumulation (SSA) theory has emphasised the role of institutions in creating forms of economic and social stability to further the accumulation process on national levels. However, in the era of global neo-liberalism, these functions of what were traditionally conceived of as ‘nation-state’ institutions have been problematised. The purpose of this paper is to examine and assess the extent and manner of the structural transformations that are taking place and, furthermore to explore the tensions that exist between conventional state institutions on the one hand and the emergence of global ‘state-like’ institutions on the other. Using insights from international political economy and other related disciplines, an attempt will be made to extend the scope of SSA theory in understanding the role of emerging global structures in mediating relationships between capital and labour, capital and citizens and the rivalries that exist between different capital fractions.
P. The advantages of a Critical Realist SSA theory
Presented by: Mr. Brian O’Boyle
Email: b.boyle1@nuigalway.ie
As a theoretically produced account of capitalist accumulation, SSA theory makes foundational assumptions about the real world. However in line with the vast majority of its epistemological counterparts it has failed to adequately elaborate these presuppositions with some deliterious results such as an initial emphasis on technological determinism and occasionally on econometric modelling. Critical Realism seeks to redress this ontological deficiency by making explicit enquiries into the nature of social reality and to the extent that its results confirm the implicit assumptions of the SSA theorists it can form a useful appendage to their approach. Moreover, the model of structure and agency furnished by critical realism can also be useful in pointing to the importance of hegemonic struggles within capitalism, and in highlighting the significance of transformative praxis within structural crises. This not only guards against naturalising capitalist production relations as they move through a ‘succession of relatively stable SSA’s’. But it will also recover the normative elements of SSA theory as an instance of Marxian emancipatory theory.
Q. Indian Tenancy, Moral Reasoning and the Social Structures of Accumulation
Presented by: Dr. Wendy Olsen
Email: Wendy.Olsen@manchester.ac.uk
This paper offers an empirical case study using mixed methods in southern Andhra Pradesh, India. The research is funded by the ESRC via the Global Poverty Research Group.
I also begin from theoretical premises very similar to the social structures of accumulation school, but with a pluralism that opens me up to possibilities of non-capitalist behaviour. I make an ontological assumption that capitalism can penetrate, but not necessarily permeate, daily life. I draw upon feminist theory and critical realist ontology.
The research has suggested that choice models are a poor and limited framework for interpreting tenants’ labour-market behaviour. Indeed, much of their work is conducted without direct remuneration. It is own-work on operational land-holdings. On the other hand, however, structuralist models of ‘constraint’ are also inadequate for considering how people’s labour and work are shaped. Instead, according to the field study in two villages, the quality of work-related relationships is valued in itself. Three aspects of this are central: friendship, family, and flexibility over time. My research strongly supports stressing differentiated agency in the village milieu. Does SSA recognise agency adequately? The tenancy policy literature has a dominant strand in which both Marxist and neoclassical economists join in advocacy that is pro-growth, pro-commodification. This does not do justice to the specificity and richness of the village scene however. In summary, the paper is a moral economy approach to the dynamics of labouring on rented land in south India.
R. Digital migration and regulation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil
Presented by: Dr. Hindenburgo-Francisco Pires
Email: hindenburgo@gmail.com
The thematic of this work represents a new scope of study in the area of Geography. It is affiliated to the research line: "Globalization, Public Policies and Territorial Reorganization" in the Post-Graduate Program in Geography at the Rio de Janeiro State University - UERJ, in the field of knowledge "Cyberspace and Society of the Information". It is also part of the research project “Virtual Structures of Accumulation and Cyberspace: The morphologic production of cyberspace and the appropriation of the informational flows in Brazil ", financed by the Foundation Carlos Chagas Filho for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State – FAPERJ.
This research is a sequence of studies dedicated to the need of conceiving a geographical theory on the new productive forms of accumulation based on technical nets . These nets have enabled the consolidation of virtual structures accumulation and the manifestation of a new social space of communication or sociability, the cyberspace. From this perspective, this work is firstly aimed at analyzing the territorial formation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil, according to the theory of the social structures of accumulation; secondly, it aims at revealing how the processes of regulation and institutionalization of the Internet and the relations of electronic commerce, as planned by the recently created Internet Governance in Brazil (http://www.cg.org.br/) and Executive Committee of Electronic Commerce (http://ce.mdic.gov.br/), are relevant governmental instruments for digital migration and normative management of the territorial flows in Brazilian cyberspace; thirdly, this essay is intended to demonstrate how these two processes contribute to the strategic repositioning of the national states in the South, in face of current digital division and expansion of the electronic commerce and the "immaterial capital"; in the fourth place, to demonstrate the growth of services and the establishment of new network territorial dynamics and the considerable increase in the number of financial transactions through the Internet.
Finally, the establishment of this regulatory landmark is a condition for the consolidation of a paradigm of regional governance that has engendered conditions for the reterritorialization of the virtual structures of accumulation in the Brazilian late capitalism.
S. Neoliberalism, Deunionization and Labor Flexibility: Components of a New Social Structure of Accumulation for the United States?
Presented by: Professor Samuel Rosenberg , Roosevelt University
Email: srosenbe@roosevelt.edu
After the ending of World War II, an institutional framework gradually evolved setting the stage for postwar prosperity in the United States. Stagflation characterized the economy in the 1970s. While not explicitly discussed in these terms, the Reagan administration attempted to create a new institutional framework for economic prosperity, based on neoliberalism. The attack on the state, on the one hand, translated into policies reducing the tax and regulatory burdens faced by business along with the taxes of the wealthy. On the other hand , it also led to a weakening of the minimal social protection policies benefiting workers in general and the poor in particular. Union power was reduced through high aggregate levels of unemployment, increased labor market competition and the reinterpretation of existing industrial relations legislation in a pro-business manner. The market-based conservative strategy was closely aligned with an ongoing corporate restructuring. Facing growing domestic and international competition, U.S. based corporations were trying to become more low-cost producers. Wishing to dominate labor, employers became more adversarial in their relations with their workers over issues of wages, hours and work rules. Contingent labor became more prevalent. Aggressive anti-union management behavior led to a sharp trade union decline.
The Reagan legacy strongly influenced government policy in the 1990s and beyond and the nature of the economic expansion in the 1990s and beyond. Clinton’s social policy carried out the Reagan attack on welfare benefits to its conclusion. Clinton’s labor policy was the least pro-union of any Democratic administration in the post World War II period. Collective bargaining relations remained conflictual and even in long term collective bargaining relationships unions were often on the defensive. Deunionization continued as did the growth of flexible labor. New patterns of labor market segmentation have emerged.
Over the past 25 years, the US economy has steadily expanded, with the exception of two relatively minor recessions. At the same time however, there has been growing economic inequality and increased deprivation. Are neoliberalism, deunionization and labor flexibility components of a new social structure of accumulation for the United States?
T. Cultivating Crisis?: Unmasking the Social Structures of Accumulation, The Trojan Horse and the Derailment of Democracy in Kerala/India
Presented by: Dr. K Ravi Raman
Email: ravi.raman@manchester.ac.uk
World-wide, the operations of the multilateral financial institutions undermine national and local planning processes, and domestic potential for resource mobilisation as well as genuine sustainable development; more importantly, it also undermined domestic democratic processes, all in the name of economic growth and ‘crisis’.
Coming more to the operations of one such multilateral financial insitution – the Manila based Asian Development Bank – India seems to be the immediate target, often attracted by its large size and a pro-liberal government in power. The present paper, however, restricted itself to a single Indian state, Kerala, which has been known not for its minimal state which the neoliberal agenda aims for, but for its wide net of welfare measures which ultimately helped to gain it a reputation as a model worth emulating. However, in this state too, the neoliberal solution appeared – broadly privatisation and deregulation - where the neo-liberal solution for the said ‘crisis’ in finance and development was sought in external borrowing. It is a classic case wherein one would find that the neoliberal ideology has been capable of cultivating an artificial ‘fiscal crisis’ in the domestic economy, and then to interfere, with its own discourse and agenda of development something contingent upon its class-bias and larger orientation towards market orientation and trade-openness. The class bias of the state blinds it to encrypted sources of huge funds from within the region which help foster social structures of accumulation constituted by groups of large business traders, owners of luxury hotels, big planters, gold merchants, liquor barons, forest contractors and so on who form multiple nodes in the power-chain, which ultimately winds its way to the state apparatus. What this boils down to is that growth and fiscal crisis or no, the ADB/WB/IMF-driven structural adjustments and neo liberal reforms are here to stay unless they are politically and economically countered.
U. The Centrality of Finance
Presented by: Professor William K. Tabb
Email: william.tabb@gmail.com
While globalization and neoliberalism have become keywords in the contemporary conjuncture it has been difficult for political economists working in the social structure of accumulation (SSA) perspective to theorize such developments as a coherent new SSA. The first part of this paper briefly suggests the contours of such a new SSA identified as global neoliberalism stressing the centrality of finance to its construction and evolution. A second section explores statistical dimensions of financialization (a term to be defined) in a global perspective and the key role of the United States, its government, institutions, and banks to its development. A third part of the paper considers issues of risk inherent in neoliberal financialization and a fourth the role of the dollar in the global political economy. It is followed by a short conclusion which suggests a larger framing of the present in history.
V. Class, Crisis, and the theory of a Social Structure of Accumulation
Presented by: Professor Martin Wolfson
Email: mwolfson@nd.edu
By most accounts, the postwar social structure of accumulation (SSA) in the United States broke up in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a decade of crisis and struggle, the institutional structure of the postwar SSA was replaced by a free market model that undermined regulatory structures and promoted capital mobility. This model, now dominant globally, is known as neoliberalism.
Does the neoliberal era constitute a new social structure of accumulation? Neoliberalism is a settled institutional structure, yet it has not produced the rapid economic growth that one would associate with a new SSA. To address this puzzle, the paper explores a possible reconceptualization of SSA theory. Rather than defining stages of capitalism as alternating 25-year structures of economic growth and crisis, it suggests alternating structures of regulation and the free market. Rather than the creation of institutional structures based upon the requirements of economic growth, it suggests institutions created as a resolution of class and intra-class conflicts among industry, finance, and labor. It thus views neoliberalism as a stage of capitalism based upon the (temporary) dominance of capital over labor.
Neoliberalism’s subpar economic growth can be traced to problems of overcapacity and underconsumption. Building upon these developments, the paper explores the hypothesis that free market stages of capitalism are ultimately undermined by underconsumption crises, whereas regulatory stages of capitalism (such as the postwar SSA) are vulnerable to profit-squeeze crises.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
UPDATED CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Between the 2nd and the 4th of November 2006, the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) is hosting an international conference on Social Structure of Accumulation theory. Titled “Growth and Crisis, Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis” this is the first conference dedicated exclusively to Social Structure of Accumulation (SSA) Theory, and will involve most of its most prominent theorists, analysts and researchers worldwide.
The academic committee of this international event is composed of Dr. Terrence McDonough at NUIG, Prof. Michael Reich at the University of California, Berkeley, and Prof. David Kotz at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
This conference will be held at the Cairnes Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, and is sponsored by the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC), Computer Services, Faculty of Commerce and Department of Economics of NUIG. It has been organised by the Centre of Innovation & Structural Change (CISC) and the Department of Economics.
This conference will be fully broadcast through the internet, and it is expected the event will be the beginning of ongoing international discussions and contact.
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
18:00 – 19:00 Registration. Reception. Cairnes School of Business & Public Policy.
19:00 – 21:00 Opening Session. SAC Room. St Antony’s building.
Welcome remarks:
Niall O’Brolchain, Green Party Mayor of Galway
Main Plenary:
Chair: Martin Wolfson, University of Notre Dame, USA.
Terrence McDonough, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
“SSA Theory: The State of the Art”
Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
"Changes in Capitalism since the Reagan Era: a Social Structure of Accumulation Approach"
David Kotz, University of Massachusettes, Amherst, USA.
“Institutional Structure or Social Structure of Accumulation?”
Friday, November 3rd, 2006
9:00 – 10:30
Theory
Chair: Barbara Harriss-White, Oxford University, UK.
Victor Lippit, University of California, Riverside, USA.
“Social Structure of Accumulation Theory”
Martin Wolfson, University of Notre Dame, USA.
“Class, Crisis, and the Theory of a Social Structure of Accumulation”
Brian O’Boyle, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
“The advantages of a Critical Realist SSA theory”
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30
Finance and Regulation
Chair: Wendy Olson, University of Manchester UK.
Robert Boyer, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) & L’Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, France.
“The contemporary American SSA in the light of CEOs remuneration evolution”
Stavros Mavroudeas, University of Macedonia, Greece.
“Regulation Theory and the Social Structures of Accumulation: A Critical comparison”
William Tabb, Queens University & Graduate Centre of the City of New York, USA.
“The Centrality of Finance”
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
Egypt and Brazil
Chair: Carlos Salas, El Colegio de Tlaxcala, Mexico.
Enid Hill, American University in Cairo, Egypt.
“Transitions from Socialism to Capitalism and the Legislation that Seeks to create new social structure of accumulation, with special reference to Egypt"
Hindenburgo Francisco Pires, Instituto de Geografia/UERJ, Brazil.
“Digital migration and regulation of the virtual structures of accumulation in Brazil”
Hawa Diawara, Université Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle, France.
“The logic of financial crisis in a financializing regime of accumulation : the Brazilian specific case”
3:30 – 4:00 Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30
Globalization, China and Crisis
Globalization, China and Crisis
Chair: Victor Lippit, University of California, Riverside, USA.
Emlyn Nardone, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
“Examining the role of ‘statelike’ structures in facilitating global accumulation processes”
Andrew Glyn, University of Oxford, UK.
“Will Marx be Right – China and the World Economy”
Minqi Li, University of Utah, USA.
"Capitalism with Zero Profit Rate?: Limits to Growth and the Law of the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall"
19:00 Conference Dinner at Kirwan Lane Restaurant. Sponsor by the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC) at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).
Saturday, November 4th , 2006
10:00 – 11:30
Property and its Limits
Chair: Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Ann Davis, Marist College, USA.
“The Discourse of Property: Continuity within Transformation”
John Asimakopoulos, City University of New York, USA.
“The Private Property Elephant: An Anarcho-SSA analysis of globalization”
11:30 – 11:45 Coffee Break
11:45 – 13:15
India
Chair: Minqi Li, University of Utah, USA.
Barbara Harriss-White, Oxford University, UK.
“Social structure, tax culture and the state : Tamil Nadu, India”
K. Ravi Raman, Manchester University, UK.
“Cultivating Crisis?: Unmasking the Social Structures of Accumulation, The Trojan Horse and the Derailment of Democracy in Kerala/India”
Enid Hill, American University in Cairo, Egypt.
“SSAs, Culture, Egypt”
1:15 – 2:30 Lunch
14:30 – 16:00
USA and Labour
Chair: William Tabb, Queens University & Graduate Centre of the City of New York, USA.
Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
“Contestation in the New SSA : State and Municipal Minimum Wages and Living Wages”
Fidelma Murphy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
“Internationally Segmented Labour Markets and Maquilas of the Auto industry – The effects of Spatialisation on Capital/Labour Relations in the US and Mexico”
Samuel Rosenberg, Roosevelt University, USA.
“Neoliberalism, Deunionization and Labor Flexibility: Components of a New Social Structure of Accumulation for the United States?”
16:00 – 17:00
Clossing session:
Future Directions and Wrap Up
Chair: Samuel Rosenberg, Roosevelt University, USA.
Terrence McDonough, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
David D. Kotz, University of Massachusettes, Amherst, USA.
Conference Participants
1. John Asimakopoulos, City University, New York, USA.
Email:john.asimakopoulos@bcc.cuny.edu
Dr. John Asimakopoulos is an Assistant professor of Sociology at the City University of New York. He earned a Ph.D. in Sociology and M.A. in Philosophy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York; an M.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University. He has taught Economics, Sociology, and Political Science at many NY/NJ regional Universities. His work focuses on labor, globalization/SSA, and Anarchist theory. As the child of Greek factory workers, John has dedicated his life to promoting equality and social justice for the working people of the world.
2. Robert Boyer, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) & L’Ecole Des Hautes Etudes, France.
Email: Robert.boyer@ens.fr
Robert BOYER is a senior economist working for Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique( CNRS) at Paris Jourdan Sciences Economique . He is teaching at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales( EHESS) and running a Master program " The Economics of Institutions". His core research deals with the impact of economic institutions upon growth regimes, with a special emphasis on labour institutions and social systems of innovation. He is a contributor to the "régulation theory" that investigates the long run transformation of capitalist economies and stresses the persisting diversity of national forms of capitalism. Among his publications:"Régulation Theory: The state of the art" Routledge 2002, "The future of Economic Growth" Edward Elgar 2004
Email:john.asimakopoulos@bcc.cuny.edu
Dr. John Asimakopoulos is an Assistant professor of Sociology at the City University of New York. He earned a Ph.D. in Sociology and M.A. in Philosophy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York; an M.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University. He has taught Economics, Sociology, and Political Science at many NY/NJ regional Universities. His work focuses on labor, globalization/SSA, and Anarchist theory. As the child of Greek factory workers, John has dedicated his life to promoting equality and social justice for the working people of the world.2. Robert Boyer, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) & L’Ecole Des Hautes Etudes, France.
Email: Robert.boyer@ens.fr
Robert BOYER is a senior economist working for Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique( CNRS) at Paris Jourdan Sciences Economique . He is teaching at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales( EHESS) and running a Master program " The Economics of Institutions". His core research deals with the impact of economic institutions upon growth regimes, with a special emphasis on labour institutions and social systems of innovation. He is a contributor to the "régulation theory" that investigates the long run transformation of capitalist economies and stresses the persisting diversity of national forms of capitalism. Among his publications:"Régulation Theory: The state of the art" Routledge 2002, "The future of Economic Growth" Edward Elgar 20043. Miguel Bruno, National School of Statistics (ENCE), Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (ENCE), Brazil.
Email: mbruno@ibge.gov.br
4. Ricardo Caffé, University of Feira de Santana, Brazil.
Email: ricardo.caffe@gmail.com
5. Ann Davis, Marist College, USA.
Email: Ann.Davis@marist.edu
Ann Davis, Assistant Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Marist College Bureau of Economic Research, has held previous appointments on the faculties of Vassar College and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Dr. Davis received her Ph.D. at Boston College, under the direction of Leon Smolinsky and Barry Bluestone, focusing on comparative approaches to business cycle theory. Her recent work has focused on comparative institutional analysis, global finance, and environmental issues. She is interested in the development and application of institutional analysis to issues of property and governance, building on the work of Marx, SSA, as well as “old” and “new” institutionalism.6. Hawa Diawara, Institut des Hautes Etudes sur l'Amerique Latine (IHEAL), Université Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle, France.
Email: diawara7@yahoo.fr
Dr. Hawa Diawara’s research study deals with the role of finance in the dynamic of accumulation regime by analyzing the interactions between the monetary policy, the stock holder fictive valuation of capital, the dynamic of labour market and the economic instability. The aim of this research is to reveal the patrimonial effects of monetary policy and to update the social relationships and private interests that hide behind the “veil” of money. She bases on different heterodox approaches (Theory of Regulation, Theory of Marx and post-Keynesian’s approach) which underline the role of the State and the institutions in a way fundamentally opposed to the neoclassic perspective.
7. Andrew Glyn, University of Oxford, UK.
Email: andrew.glyn@ccc.ox.ac.uk
8. Barbara Harriss-White, Oxford University, UK.
Email: barbara.harriss-white@queen-elizabeth-house.oxford.ac.uk
Professor Barbara Harriss-White is the Director, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University's Department of International Development, Professor of Development Studies and Fellow of Wolfson College.Her disciplinary background is in Agricultural Science, Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Economic Anthropology and Development Studies.
She has examined structures and relations of identity as regulators of accumulation and class formation in India's non-state-regulated economy . Her work related to SSA is published in her books “India working CUP”, “India: socially regulated economy”, and in the “Indian Journal of Labour Economics”.
9. Enid Hill, American University in Cairo, Egypt.
Email: enidhill@aucegypt.edu
Dr. Enid Hill is the Professor of Human Rights and Law Department chair at the American University in Cairo.(Photograph by Randa Shaath available online at http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/668/profile.htm)
10. David M. Kotz,University of Massachusettes, Amherst, USA.
Email: dmkotz@econs.umass.edu
Prof. David M. Kotz is Professor, Economics Department, and Research Associate, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
His research interests are the evolution of formerly centrally planned economies (particularly Russia), accumulation and crisis in the U.S. economy, neoliberal economic policies and institutions, and models of participatory socialism.
His most recent publications are Russia’s Path from Gorbachev to Putin, coauthored with Fred Weir, Routledge, forthcoming 2007; "Contradictions of Economic Growth in the Neoliberal Era" (in submission); "The Role of the State in Economic Transformation," in Chinese in Foreign Theoretical Trends (Beijing), January 2005, 7-12, and February 2005, 32-36.
11. Minqi Li, University of Utah, USA.
Email: minqi.li@economics.utah.edu
Born in January 1969 in Beijing, China. He studied in Beijing University between 1987 and 1990 and participated in the 1989 student movement. Between 1990 and 1992 he was a political prisoner. After 1989, he rejected the bourgeois liberal ideology and moved towards revolutionary Marxism. He came to the United States in 1994 and received Ph.D. in economic from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2002. He taught political science in York University, Canada from 2003 to 2006 and since July 2006 he has been teaching economics in University of Utah. His current research interest includes the long-term movement of the profit rate in the capitalist world-economy, the structural contradictions of neoliberalism and global financial imbalances, global environmental crisis and the historical limit to capitalism.
Email: dmkotz@econs.umass.edu
Prof. David M. Kotz is Professor, Economics Department, and Research Associate, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst.His research interests are the evolution of formerly centrally planned economies (particularly Russia), accumulation and crisis in the U.S. economy, neoliberal economic policies and institutions, and models of participatory socialism.
His most recent publications are Russia’s Path from Gorbachev to Putin, coauthored with Fred Weir, Routledge, forthcoming 2007; "Contradictions of Economic Growth in the Neoliberal Era" (in submission); "The Role of the State in Economic Transformation," in Chinese in Foreign Theoretical Trends (Beijing), January 2005, 7-12, and February 2005, 32-36.
11. Minqi Li, University of Utah, USA.
Email: minqi.li@economics.utah.edu
Born in January 1969 in Beijing, China. He studied in Beijing University between 1987 and 1990 and participated in the 1989 student movement. Between 1990 and 1992 he was a political prisoner. After 1989, he rejected the bourgeois liberal ideology and moved towards revolutionary Marxism. He came to the United States in 1994 and received Ph.D. in economic from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2002. He taught political science in York University, Canada from 2003 to 2006 and since July 2006 he has been teaching economics in University of Utah. His current research interest includes the long-term movement of the profit rate in the capitalist world-economy, the structural contradictions of neoliberalism and global financial imbalances, global environmental crisis and the historical limit to capitalism.12. Victor Lippit, University of California, Riverside, USA.
Email: victor.lippit@ucr.edu
Victor D. Lippit is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Riverside, where he has been since 1971. His essay, "The Reconstruction of a Social Structure of Accumulation in the United States" appeared in the Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 29, no. 3 (summer 1997) and was reprinted in Bob Jessop, ed., Regulation theory and the Crisis of Capitalism, vol. 4 (cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2001). Several chapters in hhis recent book Capitalism London: Routledge, 2005) focus on SSAs.
Prof. Stavros Mavroudeas is Professor of Economics at the University of Macedonia.His PhD thesis title was “Regulation Approach: A Critical Appraisal”, awarded by Birkbeck College, University of London. His publications are “Regulation Theory: The Road from Creative Marxism to Post-Modern Disintegration” (1999), in Science & Society; “Periodising Capitalism: Problems and Method - The case of the Regulation Approach” (1999) in Research in Political Economy; “The Mode of Regulation” as review essay for the Routledge Encyclopaedia of International Political Economy; “Commodities, workers and institutions: Analytical and empirical problems in Regulation, Consumption Theory” (2003) in Review of Radical Political Economics; “The French Regulation Approach and its Theory of Consumption” (2003) in Storia del Pensiero Economic; and “A History of Contemporary Political Economy and Post-Modernism” in the Review of Radical Political Economics.
14. Terrence J. McDonough, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Email: terrence.mcdonough@nuigalway.ie
Dr. Terrence McDonough's Ph.D. is from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Before joining NUI, Galway in 1995, other appointments were at the Institute for Industry Studies, New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, at Canisius College, Buffalo, and at Dublin City University. His current research interests include globalization, American and Irish economic history, political economy, the history of economic thought and economics education for labour and community groups. He is working on a short book on contemporary economics and the Great Irish Famine and a collection of essays on the history of Irish economic thought. He is the director of the CentreSTAGE project funded by the Irish Research Council on the Humanities and Social Sciences which is analyzing globalization as a new stage of capitalism. He was co-editor with David Kotz and Michael Reich of Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis,. Cambridge University Press, 1994 and more recently edited Was Ireland A Colony?: Economics, Politics, Ideology and Culture in the Irish Nineteenth Century, Irish Academic Press, 2005.15. Fidelma Murphy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Email: fidelma.murphy@nuigalway.ie
Fidelma Murphy is a PhD Candidate in Economics at NUI, Galway and she is affiliated to the CISC research centre. B.A (Economics & Classical Civilisation), M.A. Economics (Policy Evaluation and Planning). She is lecturer in the Department of Economics, and in the Masters in Public Advocacy. Interest in SSA Theory related to the specifics of spatialisation theory and its effects on capital/labour relations within a globalised context. Her supervisor is Dr. Terrence McDonough.16. Emlyn Nardone, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Email: emlyn.nardone@nuigalway.ie
Emlyn Nardone graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an MA (Hons) in Political Economy in 2000. He then completed an MA in International Relations at the Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS), which is an amalgam of the Université Libre des Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Kent at Canterbury (UKC) in 2002. The subject matter of his PhD thesis is conceptualising the links between market and state transformation and transnational class formation under the supervision of Dr. Terrence McDonough. His research interests include critical realism, social structures of accumulation, international political economy, Marxism and globalisation.
Email: emlyn.nardone@nuigalway.ie
Emlyn Nardone graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an MA (Hons) in Political Economy in 2000. He then completed an MA in International Relations at the Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS), which is an amalgam of the Université Libre des Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Kent at Canterbury (UKC) in 2002. The subject matter of his PhD thesis is conceptualising the links between market and state transformation and transnational class formation under the supervision of Dr. Terrence McDonough. His research interests include critical realism, social structures of accumulation, international political economy, Marxism and globalisation.17. Brian O’Boyle, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Email: B.Oboyle1@nuigalway.ie
Brian O' Boyle has affiliations with the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change and the Dept. of Economics at NUI Galway where he is currently a Ph.D candidate. His research looks at the ideology of Neoliberalism and more specifically its relationship with neoclassical economics. This is partly achieved by conceiving the latter as a constituent of the current SSA as it legitimates capitalist accumulation and naturalises capitalist production relations. Brian previously worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Limerick and his other research interests include philosophy of science, political economy and Marxist theory.18. Wendy Olsen, University of Manchester, UK.
Email: wendy.olsen@Manchester.ac.uk
Dr. Wendy Olsen is Lecturer in Socio-Economic Research in Institute for Development Policy and Management at University of Manchester.“My disciplinary background is in development economics and sociology with social statistics. I did a PhD in India using a village level fieldwork method. We now call this triangulation. Interviews showed me things that 'hard data' of the survey-data kind will never reveal. I am also very impressed at how knowing different languages gives me certain insights that couldn't be reached from within an English language context. I am committed to listening at field level whilst also using large data sets, such as the Indian National Sample Survey, to study large-scale structural relations. These relations are historically and institutionally embedded but ever-changing. I hope to meet other SSA researchers and to probe the edges of the SSA theoretical framework”.
19. Hindenburgo-Francisco Pires, Instituto de Geografia/UERJ, Brazil
Email: hindenburgo@gmail.com
Professor Dr Hindenburgo Francisco Pires is the Director of Instituto de Geociências at Rio de Janeiro State University; his disciplinary background is in Globalization and Financial Restructuring in Brazil and Latin America; Cyberspace and Society of the Information; Urban and Regional Planning and Geography of Industry. Some of his publications are Industrial Restructuring and Brazilian High-Tech, Phd. Dissertation, São Paulo University, 1996; Virtual Structures of Accumulation and Cybercities. Revista Scripta Nova, Universidad de Barcelona, 2004; The Cyberspace as Virtual Structures of Accumulation, Annals VI National Meeting of ANPEGE, Fortaleza, 2005.He is currently working in research Project titled: “Virtual Structures of Accumulation and Cyberspace", financed by FAPERJ. http://www.cibergeo.org/artigos/
20. K. Ravi Raman, Manchester University, UK.
Email: raviraman@sancharnet.in
Dr Ravi Raman is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology in Manchester University.His previous affiliation was the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
His disciplinary background is in Political Economy, Political Anthropology, Political Ecology, and Social History.
His most recent publications are "Corporate Violence, Legal Nuances and Political Ecology: Cola War in Plachimada”, in Economic and Political Weekly; "Playing God in God’s Own Country: The ADB in the Indian State of Kerala”,in Focus on the Global South; “Neoliberal Policy Reforms and the Welfare State; Implications of the ADB Loan in Kerala, India”; “Plachimada Resistance: A Post Development Social Movement Metaphor?” in Postdevelopment Theory and Practice; “Muthanga: A Spark of Hope", Social Analysis”in. State, Sovereignty, War; and “The Great Corporate Social Responsibility Pretence: A case study of Coca-Cola in India”.
21. Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Email: mreich@econ.berkeley.edu
22. Samuel Rosenberg, Roosevelt University, USA.
Email: srosenbe@roosevelt.edu
Samuel Rosenberg is Professor of Economics and Director of the Honors Program at Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois. He has also taught at the University of California, Davis and Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. He is the author of American Economic Development Since 1945: Growth, Decline and Rejuvenation, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. While not using social structure of accumulation terminology, this book is informed by this analysis and provides historical information useful for those interested in applying SSA theory to the United States case.
Carlos Salas, holds a PhD in economics from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where he worked until 2001. He is currently at El Colegio de Tlaxcala. His interests lie in labor economics, theories of development and in the critique of neoclassical economics foundations.In his PhD thesis he used a SSA framework to understand the role of very small economic units in Mexico. During the mid 80's he also worked on a reconstruction of labor force growth by industries in Mexico during the period 1895-1980, showing the existence of long waves associated to different SSAs.
24. William K. Tabb, Queens University & Graduate Centre of the City of New York, USA. Email: wktabb@earthlink.net
William Tabb has been Professor of Economics, Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Professor of Economics at Queens College. His books include Economic Governance in the Age of Globalization (Columbia University Press, 2004), The Amoral Elephant: Globalization and the Struggle for Social Justice in the Twenty-First Century (Monthly Review, 2001), Reconstructing Political Economy: The Great Divide in Economic Thought (Routledge, 1999) and The Postwar Japanese System: Cultural Economy and Economic Transformation (Oxford University Press, 1995). He has presented invited papers to the American Economics Association, American Sociological Association and American Political Science Association.25. Martin Wolfson, University of Notre Dame, USA.
Email:mwolfson@nd.edu
Marty Wolfson is a member of the Department of Economics and Policy Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He has taught economics at Notre Dame since 1989. Prior to that, he was an economist at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Some publications that relate to the social structure of accumulation concept include the following: “Neoliberalism and the Social Structure of Accumulation,” Review of Radical Political Economics 35 (September 2003):255-62; "The Financial System and the Social Structure of Accumulation," in David Kotz, Terrence McDonough, and Michael Reich, eds., Social Structures of Accumulation, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Financial Crises: Understanding the Postwar U.S. Experience, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1994, Chapter 14
Friday, August 11, 2006
Conference Venue
The Growth and Crises: Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis's conference will be held in the Cairnes Graduate School of Business & Public Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
(this satelite picture in which NUIG can be observed was taken from Google Earth imagenery)
For travel, accommodation and tourist information visit our blog TO GALWAY at http://togalway.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Conference Invitation
Terrence McDonough, National University of Ireland, Galway
Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley
David M. Kotz, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
We invite you to join:
John Asimakopoulos, Robert Boyer, Miguel Bruno, Hawa Diawara, Claude Diebolt, Barbara Harriss-White, James Heintz, Enid Hill, David Kotz, Victor Lippit, Linda Lobao, Stavros Mavroudeas, Terrence McDonough, Ravi Raman, Michael Reich, Sam Rosenberg, Carlos Salas, Michael Wallace, Martin Wolfson
at a conference on Growth and Crises: Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis, to be held at the National University of Ireland, in Galway, Ireland , November 2 ‑ 4, 2006.
You can participate in this conference either through presenting a paper or serving as a discussant on a panel.
Sessions are planned on the following topics, all in relation to the SSA theory or related theories:
! The theory of SSAs
! Individual country studies
! Regional analysis
! International political economy
! Environmental issues
! Individual institutions, including finance, labour and criminal justice
! Comparative studies of different countries
! Analysis of growth and crisis
! Globalization, neoliberalism, and the SSA theory
In addition, we hope to have a session or two devoted to differing but related perspectives. We will also be discussing continuing communication and future events. Papers presented at this conference can be considered for inclusion, along with others, in a follow-up volume to our 1994 edited book Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis.
We are inviting individuals to participate in this conference on the basis of past work or current interest in the SSA framework or related schools of thought. We expect to raise enough financial support to cover conference fees for those invited. Attendees will have to cover the costs of transportation, accommodation and probably meals. If there is someone you think should be invited please contact us.
We are including a registration form.
Please send the form and abstract by September 8 to Terry McDonough at
TERRENCE.MCDONOUGH@NUIGALWAY.IE
Or by snail mail to
Terrence McDonough
Dept. of Economics
NUI, Galway
Galway
Ireland
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