Course syllabus

SOCIOL748 CRITICAL THEORY AND SOCIAL CHANGE 

 

COURSE OUTLINE 2020 – CAPITAL IN AOTEAROA

 

Lecturer

Associate Professor Campbell Jones

Office: Te Puna Mārama (building 201E), room 951

Office hours: Wednesdays 11.00am-12.00midday. Additional times by appointment 

Email: campbell.jones@auckland.ac.nz

 

Lectures

Fridays 10.00am-1.00pm

Room: Humanities Building room 314

 

Sessions on Friday mornings will generally be divided into three sections. The first hour will involve a lecture and discussion that provides background to the reading. If there are particular themes you would like to have discussed, please let me know in advance and I can prepare additional material. The second hour will be committed to discussing capital, based on our collective reading of volume one of Marx’s Capital. The third hour will be committed to a discussion of Aotearoa, based on our collective reading of Brian Easton’s Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

Writing laboratory

Office hours meetings are available on request. In addition, to support the development of your writing, one of the weekly office hours will be organised as a ‘Writing Laboratory’, which will focus solely on writing skills and the writing process. The proposed time for this Wednesdays starting in week 2, although we can discuss this timing in week 1.

 

Calendar course description

Investigates the social forces and forms of thought currently producing progressive social change out of the contradictory realities of the existing social situation. Considers the imminent possibilities for radical change at the present moment of late capitalism, the grounds on which social change might be justified and the practical steps that might be taken to realise them.

 

Purpose

This course is an advanced seminar in critical theory and social change, focusing on the most important historical and contemporary developments in radical thought and progressive social change. This will involve constructing something of a developmental workshop for not only deepening knowledge and intellectual skills but equally the sharpening of analytic, disputation and writings skills. While there is need for a shared focus in order to benefit from doing collective work, the singularity of each participant will be reflected in the diverse interests and problems each of us is grappling with. This means that there will be an effort to find unity while emphasising multiplicity and allowing each to come at theory and change from different places. There is no pure beginning – ‘We must begin wherever we are’ (Derrida, Of Grammatology, p. 162).

 

Course content

The course theme changes each year based on my developing research programme, the research of others, events in the world, and the interests of each cohort of students. The themes for previous years have been:

 

2011: The end of the end of modernity.

2013: The theory of the subject.

2015: The other.

2016: Thought.

2017: Can the economy be thought?

2018: Hegel and us.

2019: The value-form.

 

The theme for this year will be ‘Capital in Aotearoa’. For this there are two tasks. The first task will be to develop a concept of capital, which requires an understanding of the specificity of capital, the capital-relation, and the forms taken by objects, subjects and their relations when subsumed under capital. This will also requires evaluating the specific forms of refusal that capital solicits and the forms of non-capital that capital constantly encounters. The second task will be to comprehend the arrival of capital in Aotearoa and the consequences of that arrival. This will also require analysis of the specific forms of refusal concomitant with the subsumption of Aotearoa under capital. These forms of refusal that come before and after the arrival of capital will be the grounds on which we search for the seeds of the future economic transformation of Aotearoa New Zealand in its transition through and out of the capital-relation.

 

Session plan

The first ten weeks of class will focus on discussion and analysis of two books, and will be accompanied by a series of short writing assignments. The final two weeks will involve conference style presentations by participants, developing towards the final longer essay. Session titles are as follows:

 

1. Beginnings (Friday 31 July)
2. Colony/market (Friday 7 August)
3. Commodity/gold and wool (Friday 14 August)
4. Pastoral/Exchange, money, capital (Friday 21 August)
5. Absolute surplus value/compromise (Friday 28 August)
6. Relative surplus value/peace (Friday 4 September)

 

Mid-term break

 

7. Machinery/command (Friday 25 September)
8. Absolute and relative surplus value/Roger (Friday 2 October)
9. General law/attack (Friday 9 October)
10. Results/rebirth (Friday 16 October)
11. In class student presentations
12. In class student presentations

 

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course you should:

• Have developed your ability to comprehend and communicate complex ideas;
• Have a solid understanding of Marx’s conception of capital, based on a first-hand reading of volume one of Capital;
• Be able to apply ideas from Capital to concrete critical social analysis;
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the economic history of Aotearoa New Zealand
• Have developed an independent critical position regarding the prospects and limits of Marx’s thought; and
• Have developed an independent critical position regarding the prospects and limits of economic histories of Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

To achieve the learning objectives you will need to:

• Read the assigned readings, and use language and reference dictionaries to clarify complex and technical words and concepts;
• Actively seek to understand all of the readings, which involves reading beyond the text and bringing questions of clarification to class;
• Attend the weekly lecture and actively participate in posing questions and the discussion of readings;
• Organise your time independently;
• Plan and prepare for and submit the short essays in a timely fashion; and
• Prepare and submit your long essay on time

 

Commitment

For those taking the paper for credit, this is a 30 credit paper, which is equivalent to 20 hours per week. The 20 hours per week for this course will be broken roughly into time each week for lectures (3 hours), writing lab or office hours (1 hour), writing every day (6 hours) and reading (10 hours).

 

Readings

This year our reading will be restricted to two books, both of which will be read carefully in their entirety. These books are:

 

Marx, Karl (1990) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume One, trans. Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin (originally published 1867). 

Easton, Brian (2020) Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington Press. 

 

Each week we will read assigned sections from both of these books and discuss them in class. To complete the course it will be essential that you read both books from cover to cover through the course of semester two. Easton has been ordered for the library (for short loan), and Marx is there already. It is strongly recommended that you buy your own copy of both books. You will need to read them in detail, mark the text and make annotations. Indeed, learning how to read large books like this, carefully and slowly, will hopefully be one of the transferable skills that you take away from the class. These books will with you for many years. So, please do go out of your way to make sure you can secure your own copies of both books.

 

Readings breakdown

Each week the following pages of each book will be assigned as required reading. Please make sure you complete the reading before coming to class on Friday.

 

Marx
Week	Date	Section	Chapters	Pages
1	31 July	Prefaces	Prefaces	89-120
2	7 Aug	Colony	26-33	873-940
3	14 Aug	Commodity	1	125-177
4	21 Aug	Exchange, money, capital	2-6	178-280
5	28 Aug	Absolute surplus value	7-11	283-426
6	4 Sep	Relative surplus value	12-14	429-491
7	25 Sep	Machinery	15	492-639
8	2 Oct	Absolute and relative	16-24	643-761
9	9 Oct	General law	25	762-870
10	16 Oct	Results	Results	948-1084
Easton
Week	Date	Section	Chapters	Pages
1	31 July	Beginnings	Intro, Appendix, 1-4	11-19, 647-655, 23-61
2	7 Aug	Market	5-10	62-120
3	14 Aug	Gold and wool	11-16	121-179
4	21 Aug	Pastoral	17-23	183-252
5	28 Aug	Compromise	24-30	253-328
6	4 Sep	Peace	31-37	331-403
7	25 Sep	Command	38-44	404-474
8	2 Oct	Roger	45-50	477-536
9	9 Oct	Attack	51-55	537-588
10	16 Oct	Rebirth	56-60	593-645

 

While we will discuss in detail how we will approach these texts in the first session, a few notes could be made in advance. First, note that the reading proposed here is a guided reading. The breakdown of Easton is relatively straightforward, with roughly 5 to 6 short chapters each week. Breaking volume one of Capital into sections is somewhat more challenging and requires some interpretive decisions in advance. Let us be clear about some of these decisions then. Probably the most obvious choice in the breakdown proposed here is that we will read Part 8, on ‘So-called Primitive Accumulation’ (chapters 26-33) before turning to chapter one. From there, we will allocate a full week to chapter one in order to give time to assess some of the conceptual complexities in sections 3 and 4 of that chapter. Absolute surplus value (week 5) will be dealt with relatively quickly, while relative surplus value (week 6) will be given more time. Note also that we will dedicate a full week to one single longer chapter in week 7 (Machinery, ch. 15) and week 9 (The general law of capitalist accumulation, ch. 25). Note also that although we will read the ‘Results of the Immediate Process of Production’ in week 10, this text can alternatively be read as a draft that can be read independently in advance of reading Capital, or again, the considerations in the Results on subsumption can be productively read alongside the analysis of relative surplus value that we will read in week 6.

 

It should also be noted that the objective of our reading of Easton and Marx is not to provide a ‘critical’ reading, but rather to develop resources for critical theory and projects of progressive social change. Clearly, both books ask for feminist and decolonial readings, and such are indispensable. Throughout, although it will be important to think and specify the limits of Easton and Marx, we will also seek to find what we can take with us from the concept of capital and the economic history of Aotearoa New Zealand in order to enrich, strengthen and develop feminist, decolonial and other progressive projects. We will discuss different reading strategies in detail in class. For now, what should be stress is that our first objective when reading Easton and Marx will not be critique, but to understand them, and to look for what they can offer.

 

Readings in advance of the first class

Some students have asked for recommendations of background readings in advance of class. Below are three completely optional readings which you can look at in advance of class if you wish:

 

1. Engels, Frederick (1868/69) ‘Karl Marx’ in Marx Engels Collected Works, vol. 21. New York: International (1985), pp. 59-64.

 

This is a short biographical entry written by Marx's friend and collaborator Engels shortly after the publication of volume one of Capital. In this brief text Engels offers a sketch of some of key moments in Marx's life to that point and also offers a telling defence of Marx against followers of the German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle, who had just died in 1864 and was influential in European socialist circles at that time.

 

2. Musto, Marcello (2018) ‘The writing of Capital: Genesis and structure of Marx's critique of political economy’ Critique, 46(1): 11-26.

 

This text offers a survey of some of the key moments in the process of Marx's writing of Capital, in the years 1857-67. It provides some specific biographical detail regarding Marx's situation in the 1860s and a very brief summary of some of the key textual moments in the drafting of Capital. Also, importantly, this article is written by one of the current new generation of Marx specialists, draws on the new critical edition of Marx's works (the MEGA2) and is a good example of commentary paying close attention to textual detail.

 

3. Marx, Karl (1865) ‘Value, price and profit’ in Marx Engels Collected Works, vol. 20. New York: International (2010), pp. 103-149. 

 

This text was presented as lectures to the then recently formed International Working Mens' Association and offers an accessible introduction to Marx's economic thought in popular form. It starts out as a critique of John Weston, a follower of the Welsh socialist Robert Owen, but unfolds into a sketch of many of the basic themes of Marx's mature critique of political economy. Note that this text was written in 1865. At this point Marx had written several thousand pages of draft material of Capital, and was working on the third draft. Although he does not enter into all of the detail of Capital here, as an introductory sketch it does offer a very accessible entry point.

 

Please remember, these three texts are optional readings, which you can read at your discretion. The other books (Marx's Capital and Easton), are the core texts, and are required reading.

 

Assessment

Grades for this course will be based on:

1. Four short essays, maximum 1,500 words (12.5% each, total 50%)
2. One longer essay due at the end of term, maximum 6,000 words (50%)

 

Short essays

At this point in your scholarly career you should be writing regularly. To assist you in this, and also to provide regular feedback on your work, in weeks 3 to 10 you are invited to write four short essays of no more than 1,500 words (including references). This is approximately one essay each fortnight. Each short essay must respond to the readings and lectures for the previous two weeks. Although you are welcome to apply the material to your own interest and may bring in supplementary readings, your short essays must demonstrate engagement with the set readings, so start from the set reading of Easton and Marx.

 

All assignments submitted will be returned with written feedback. You may submit as many assignments as you wish on any Wednesday from week 3 through to week 10, with the additional option of submitting over the break, and on return from the break if you wish.

 

In week 3: Wednesday 12 August (focusing on weeks 1-2)

In week 4: Wednesday 19 August (focusing on weeks 2-3)

In week 5: Wednesday 26 August (focusing on weeks 3-4)

In week 6: Wednesday 2 September (focusing on weeks 4-5)

 

In the break: Wednesday 9 September or 16 September (focusing on weeks 5-6)

 

In week 7: Wednesday 23 September (on any of the reading materials in weeks 1-6)

In week 8: Wednesday 30 September (focusing on weeks 6-7)

In week 9: Wednesday 7 October (focusing on weeks 7-8)

In week 10: Wednesday 14 October (focusing on weeks 8-9)

 

Your coursework grade for this part of the course will be based on the best four of the short essays you submit for grading. Thus, 50% of your final grade will be made up of the grades for your best four short essays (12.5% for each assignment). 

 

Please submit by 5.00pm Wednesday by attachment to an email in either Pages, Word or PDF format. I will offer formatting guidelines in the Writing Lab in week 2, but in summary, your essay should be set out in:

 

1. 12 point Times new roman
2. Double spaced
3. No paragraph indents, but use one complete line break between paragraphs
4. Provide a title, bold centred, at top of first page
5. No other section headings in short essays
6. Under your title place your name, the date and the course name or code
7. Do not use headers or footers, except…
8. Place page numbers at the bottom of every page
9. Provide either a reference list of sources referred to, or footnotes providing full details (in the latter case you do not need to provide a reference list)

 

It is not permitted to resubmit any work previously submitted (such is self-plagiarism), so each assignment needs to be fully original. I will try to provide written feedback on all short essays by Tuesday evening the week following submission. 

 

Long essay

You are invited to write a final essay of no more than 6,000 words (including references), which should be submitted no later than 5.00pm on Friday 6 November, which is one week after the last day of term. Potential essay topics will be discussed in class. Please submit your term essay by attachment to an email in either Pages, Word or PDF format.

 

Lateness

Short essays will not be accepted late under any circumstances, because you will have the option to submit in the following week. In the weeks 9 and 10, short essays will otherwise be accepted late only on submission of a medical certificate (by email as scanned attachment), and will otherwise be penalised 2% per day of lateness (including weekend days). Late short essays will not be accepted more than one week after their due date under any circumstances.

 

Long essays will be accepted late only on submission of a medical certificate (by email as scanned attachment), and will be penalised 2% per day of lateness. Late long essays will not be accepted more than one week after their due date under any circumstances.

 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is to give the impression that the work of others is your own. Plagiarism is a form of cheating and will be treated with the utmost severity. If you are tempted, think again. It is better to receive zero for one piece of coursework than to be excluded from the University.

 

Equity

It is the duty of everybody in the seminar to uphold the individual and collective mana of the group. Our actions, including speech, should acknowledge and enhance the mana of ourselves and others. There are consequences for actions that fail to do so. Actions that diminish the mana of others include any practice which aims at bullying, excluding, marginalising, harassing, discriminating against, rendering insecure, exploiting, criminalising, terrorising, or harbouring exterminatory fantasies against an identity group of people imagined as sharing a common determining feature. Speech or actions that are, for example, knowingly racist, sexist, ableist, ageist, homophobic or transphobic are completely unacceptable in the classroom.     

 

While free speech is a fundamental right in a democracy and we encourage respectful debate and discussion of diverse ideas, an abstract idea of free speech in general cannot and must not be used as a cover for specific instances of hateful speech or discrimination. Students in the course are expected to respect all other students and staff. If you witness hate speech or discrimination you are encouraged to raise this with the lecturer or the University Proctor.