Is Imperialism a Relevant Category in the Age of Globalized Finance? A discussion with Prabhat Patnaik and David Harvey

Tuesday, February 25, 6:30 -8:30pm. Room 9206/9207

gandhi-salt-satyagraha

Some hold the view that “imperialism” is no longer a useful category in the era of globalization. The tendency  toward a homogenization of the two segments of the globe, the advanced and the backward countries, undermines the meaningfulness of the concept of imperialism.

Prabhat Patnaik argues, against this view, that the concept of imperialism has abiding relevance.  Capitalism simply cannot exist as an isolated self-contained system, but can exist only within a pre-capitalist setting, by exercising domination over its pre-capitalist surroundings (which no longer therefore retain their original pristine form). This domination necessarily has a “spatial” dimension, in the sense that whether or not capitalism in the metropolis also dominates its own internal pre-capitalist or small producers, it cannot do without dominating such producers located in a particular “outlying” geographical region. No difference is made to this phenomenon of domination, and hence to the phenomenon of imperialism, by the fact that capitalism and capitalists (including monopoly capitalists integrated with international finance capital) emerge powerfully within this region too.

Dr Patnaik will be joined in discussion by Professor David Harvey of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics.

Prabhat Patnaik holds a D.Phil in Economics from the University of Oxford, U.K. and in 2012,  was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science (Economics) (DSc(Econ)) at SOAS, University of London. He has taught at the University of Cambridge, U.K., and at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is currently  Professor Emeritus at the J.N.U., having retired in 2010 from the Sukhamoy Chakaravarty Chair that he held there. Between 2006 and 2011 he was the Executive Head of the Planning Board of the southern state of Kerala in India. His main research interests are in the areas of Macroeconomics and Political Economy. He is the author of Time, Inflation and Growth (1988), Economics and Egalitarianism (1991). Whatever Happened to Imperialism and other essays (1995), Accumulation and Stability under Capitalism (1997), The Value of Money (2009), and Re-Envisioning Socialism (2011). He has  edited Lenin and Imperialism: An Appraisal of Theories and Contemporary Reality (1986), Macroeconomics (1995) and. Excursus in History (2011). He edits the journal Social Scientist. 

David Harvey is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the City University of New York (CUNY) and author of various books, articles, and lectures. He is the author, most recently, of one of The Guardian’s Best Books of 2011, The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2010). Other books include A Companion to Marx’s Capital, Limits to Capital, and Social Justice and the City. Professor Harvey has been teaching Karl Marx’s Capital for nearly 40 years. His lectures on Marx’s Capital Volumes I and II are available for download (free) on his website. Since 2008, he is the director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics.

Sponsored by the Center for Place, Culture and Politics

31 thoughts on “Is Imperialism a Relevant Category in the Age of Globalized Finance? A discussion with Prabhat Patnaik and David Harvey”

  1. Pingback: Diskussion zum Begriff Imperialismus [Livestream] | AG Politische Theorie der DNGPS

  2. Capitslism is everywhere. You only have to spend a few days in Cuba to see how it emerges in every corner, almost as part of a human nature desire to trade and improve chances in life. It is naive to talk about precapitalist societies in most countries and hence the imperialist discourse based con World powers is outdated. A different thing are multinacional companies but thats more to do with globalization and neoliberalism

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