So-Called Accumulation by Dispossession

• In Event: 604 - Section on Marxist Sociology Paper Session. Crises and the Future of Capitalism

Abstract

At the same time as capitalist accumulation has shown signs of exhaustion, current processes analogous to primitive accumulation have assumed an important place within the debates on the functioning of historical capitalism. Nonetheless, most current research on contemporary dispossessions has related them to the general process of capitalist accumulation proper with not enough theoretical care. The objective of this paper is to suggest some theoretical distinctions that might help in the comprehension of how dispossession, its variations, forms and mechanisms relate, contribute, or even do not contribute, to capitalist accumulation proper. To do so I discuss the concept of classical primitive accumulation and its alleged continuity until today. I then propose the concept of redistributive dispossession, which, unlike so-called primitive accumulation, does not create conditions for an expansion of capitalist accumulation. Such conditions are created through the processes I discuss under the label of expanding dispossession, which I split into expanding capitalizing dispossession and expanding commodifying dispossession.

Author

• Daniel Bin, University of Brasilia