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Capitalism: A Conversation In Critical Theory by Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi
The Blurb On The Back:
In this important new book, Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi take a fresh look at the big questions surrounding the peculiar social form known as “capitalism”, upending many of our commonly held assumptions about what capitalism is and how to subject it to critique. They show how, throughout its history, various regimes of capitalism have relied on a series of institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature, periodically readjusting the boundaries between these domains in response to crises and upheavals. They consider how these “boundary struggles” offer a key to understanding capitalism’s contradictions and the multiple forms of conflict to which it gives rise.
What emerges is a renewed crises critique of capitalism which puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, along with sharp diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and what would be required of a viable Left alternative. This major new book by two leading critical theorists will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the nature and future of capitalism and with the key questions of progressive politics today.
Nancy Fraser is Professor of Political & Social Science at the New School for Social Research and Rahel Jaeggi is professor of practical and social philosophy at the Humboldt University, Berlin. This highly academic book, framed as a conversation between the authors uses (and assumes that the reader is grounded in) critical theory to explore what capitalism is, how it’s been viewed in history, how it can be capitalised and how it can be defeated.
I’m going to say from the outset that this book was not for me but I don’t think that’s the book’s fault. I picked it up because I thought it was intended for a popular audience and I was interested in learning more about critical theory (which I understood to be cross-discipline and almost holistic) and what academia has to say both about the crises and fault lines that that are emerging within capitalist societies and how left-wing politics can propose solutions for the same. In actual fact this is an academic book written by academics for academics and I have to say that as a result it was - for me - really difficult to follow at times but worse, it doesn’t really offer any solutions if you are someone looking to invigorate progressive politics.
The book is structured as a conversation between the authors, which they say in the introduction was subject to revision as they sought to get their arguments across on the page and really just makes the artificial nature of the device more obvious. The authors are clearly familiar with each other’s work, which means that they essentially have short cuts of understanding that work to close off casual readers from following what they are saying. At the same time the book is peppered with references to academics such as Polanyi, Habermas, Hegel and of course Marx and while I had a vague knowledge of names and a basic familiarity with their work, there was no real attempt at explaining any of it so unless you are already steeped in this area, you are probably going to struggle to follow it.
The book is divided into 4 chapters:
- conceptualising capitalism, essentially examining what capitalism is and how it operates;
- historicising capitalism, essentially looking at how it developed in history;
- criticising capitalism, which looks at the dysfunctions within capitalism and how it works;
- contesting capitalism, which looks at how capitalism can be challenged especially compared with rising populism.
The parts that I followed in the first three chapters about how capitalism formed and its historical context were interesting but I have to admit I struggled to see its relevance. Similarly although the final chapter touches approvingly on approaches taken by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn to tackling capitalist narratives (in the case of Corbyn, this has not worn well given the comprehensive election defeat he suffered in 2019 but to be fair the book was published in 2018) there is nothing in the author’s conversation that offers anything policy wise that Left-leaning or progressive can get hold of to support their case. There is little there that the person in the street can understand or follow because there’s little there that directly affects or relates to their life.
Ultimately, this is one of those books that is intended for academics and students and as such will probably resonate more closely with them than it did with me.
The Verdict:
Nancy Fraser is Professor of Political & Social Science at the New School for Social Research and Rahel Jaeggi is professor of practical and social philosophy at the Humboldt University, Berlin. This highly academic book, framed as a conversation between the authors uses (and assumes that the reader is grounded in) critical theory to explore what capitalism is, how it’s been viewed in history, how it can be capitalised and how it can be defeated.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
In this important new book, Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi take a fresh look at the big questions surrounding the peculiar social form known as “capitalism”, upending many of our commonly held assumptions about what capitalism is and how to subject it to critique. They show how, throughout its history, various regimes of capitalism have relied on a series of institutional separations between economy and polity, production and social reproduction, and human and non-human nature, periodically readjusting the boundaries between these domains in response to crises and upheavals. They consider how these “boundary struggles” offer a key to understanding capitalism’s contradictions and the multiple forms of conflict to which it gives rise.
What emerges is a renewed crises critique of capitalism which puts our present conjuncture into broader perspective, along with sharp diagnoses of the recent resurgence of right-wing populism and what would be required of a viable Left alternative. This major new book by two leading critical theorists will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the nature and future of capitalism and with the key questions of progressive politics today.
Nancy Fraser is Professor of Political & Social Science at the New School for Social Research and Rahel Jaeggi is professor of practical and social philosophy at the Humboldt University, Berlin. This highly academic book, framed as a conversation between the authors uses (and assumes that the reader is grounded in) critical theory to explore what capitalism is, how it’s been viewed in history, how it can be capitalised and how it can be defeated.
I’m going to say from the outset that this book was not for me but I don’t think that’s the book’s fault. I picked it up because I thought it was intended for a popular audience and I was interested in learning more about critical theory (which I understood to be cross-discipline and almost holistic) and what academia has to say both about the crises and fault lines that that are emerging within capitalist societies and how left-wing politics can propose solutions for the same. In actual fact this is an academic book written by academics for academics and I have to say that as a result it was - for me - really difficult to follow at times but worse, it doesn’t really offer any solutions if you are someone looking to invigorate progressive politics.
The book is structured as a conversation between the authors, which they say in the introduction was subject to revision as they sought to get their arguments across on the page and really just makes the artificial nature of the device more obvious. The authors are clearly familiar with each other’s work, which means that they essentially have short cuts of understanding that work to close off casual readers from following what they are saying. At the same time the book is peppered with references to academics such as Polanyi, Habermas, Hegel and of course Marx and while I had a vague knowledge of names and a basic familiarity with their work, there was no real attempt at explaining any of it so unless you are already steeped in this area, you are probably going to struggle to follow it.
The book is divided into 4 chapters:
- conceptualising capitalism, essentially examining what capitalism is and how it operates;
- historicising capitalism, essentially looking at how it developed in history;
- criticising capitalism, which looks at the dysfunctions within capitalism and how it works;
- contesting capitalism, which looks at how capitalism can be challenged especially compared with rising populism.
The parts that I followed in the first three chapters about how capitalism formed and its historical context were interesting but I have to admit I struggled to see its relevance. Similarly although the final chapter touches approvingly on approaches taken by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn to tackling capitalist narratives (in the case of Corbyn, this has not worn well given the comprehensive election defeat he suffered in 2019 but to be fair the book was published in 2018) there is nothing in the author’s conversation that offers anything policy wise that Left-leaning or progressive can get hold of to support their case. There is little there that the person in the street can understand or follow because there’s little there that directly affects or relates to their life.
Ultimately, this is one of those books that is intended for academics and students and as such will probably resonate more closely with them than it did with me.
The Verdict:
Nancy Fraser is Professor of Political & Social Science at the New School for Social Research and Rahel Jaeggi is professor of practical and social philosophy at the Humboldt University, Berlin. This highly academic book, framed as a conversation between the authors uses (and assumes that the reader is grounded in) critical theory to explore what capitalism is, how it’s been viewed in history, how it can be capitalised and how it can be defeated.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.