Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder

Abstract

"Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is. Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an economic entity that they count in universal units of utils or abstract labour, respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they dont exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these nonexisting units, their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that matters most the accumulation of capital. This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors, capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to reshape or creorder their society."