This book is a comparative study which sheds a new empirical and theoretical light on the nature of post-communist capitalism in 11 EU new member countries of Central and Eastern Europe, or CEE11. ...Extending and modifying a well-established conceptual framework for comparative capitalism rooted in new institutional economics and economic sociology, it offers a better explanation for transition-specific and path-dependent factors inherent to systemic transformation. Based on a vast dataset, the book therefore illuminates the (dis)similarities among the institutional architectures in the EU countries. Thus, the book argues that the evolving capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe exhibits strong symptoms of institutional ambiguity or a ""patchwork"" nature which makes it a distinct category from any of the co-existing models of Western European capitalism. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative political economy, Eastern European politics, post-communist studies and more broadly to researchers in the fields of economics, European politics and the wider social sciences. It will also be of significance to journalists, policymakers, members of international organizations and consultancies with an interest in Central and Eastern Europe and in European integration. This title was distinguished in 2021 with a Prize for outstanding scientific achievements awarded by Poland’s Minister of Education and Science. See more here: https://ssl-kolegia.sgh.waw.pl/en/KGS/Pages/news.aspx?NewsID=34bcc811-438c-431f-95e5-66eabf6ce0fe&ListID=46c22218-3039-4020-954e-767189a2773d The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
"Capitalism -- Marx and Beyond" examines the current bourgeoisie capitalism. Capitalism is addressed as a unique concrete historically reality. This mode of production inherits traditional pre modern ...social forms that are cultivated as national identities. National sentiments are expressed as honor of possessions that are identified through diverse "we" and preserved as "our values". Capitalism transforms and modifies such pre modern heritages into an undistinguishable mix of both modern and pre modern social forms. Focus in this book will be on the unique material features of capitalism. Attention will be provided to the works of Karl Marx, particularly the second volume of Capital, where Marx apparently got stuck. His deadlock indicates a serious deficit associated with investigations of accumulation and innovation. Innovation and accumulation will, in this book, be linked to uncertainty and reoccurring crises that signify the incapacities of the capitalist system to operate as a viable mode of production. In the theory of value, Marx places human social labor in a unique historical position, where social labor is applied together with previously produced means in order to deliver new output. Anarchism and the insufficiency to provide necessary and appropriate output causes disturbances and crises. Several critical examinations of selected views on crises, uncertainties and dysfunctions of capitalism are offered. Selected strategies based on monetary solutions and financial instruments aim to regenerate balance. Rather than gaining a balance, reoccurring disruptive circumstances are assumed to be the normal state of affairs. Michael J. Piore and Charles F. Sabel and The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity from 1984 draws attention to a strategy based on a system of flexible specialization accompanying the introduction of Information and Communication Technology. Their second historical divide associated with the new production strategy is critically examined. Thomas Piketty and his Capital in the Twenty-First Century from 2014 emphasizes capital, wealth distribution and inequality. A critical account of the concept of capital is a paramount assignment in the critical investigations into his contribution. Marx is offered another chance through the critical investigations of some basic concepts introduced by David Harvey in A Companion to Marx's Capital, Volume 2 from 2013. Harvey's emphasis on the role of credit and finance are critically investigated and justifies an alternative return to Marx. A renewed interpretation of Marx corresponds with his assumption that a balanced and stable economy is an illusion. Capitalism has to accumulate and create the necessary flexibility in order to reproduce. On the other hand, this system of accumulation is anarchic, arbitrary and contradictory. Identification of sources for flexibility and accumulation becomes a deadlock for Marx. Innovation is insufficiently accounted for in his analysis. A serious deficit with his whole position emerges that paves the way for an alternative beyond Marx. The alternative beyond Marx draws attention to a wider context of the critical investigations. Some philosophical implications concerning the concepts of freedom, independence, determinism and randomness are touched upon. Implications for the much-debated concepts of basis and superstructure are addressed. The consequences for the future possibility for the human species to cope with crises and other aspects of our destiny are sketched.
This article analyzes the aging of a figure of labor: the male Korean office manager. In contrast to its normative heyday in late 20th century East Asia, the figure of the older manager has become a ...devalued and deviant figure in contemporary Korea. Based on ethnography of a Korean white-collar workplace, I argue that the older male manager has emerged as a "figure of alterity" that seems to permeate all aspects of Korean company life. By attuning to the ways this figure is observed and discussed in different areas, from narration to policy, I show how their negative presence can be cited to justify new office reforms. Younger managers shape their own office identities in contrast to older figures and formal office policies emerge as the foil of managerial stereotypes. An "old" spirit of capitalism, embodied in a personified figure, is just as central in articulating and differentiating models of capitalist subjectivity and institutional identity as a new one.
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