1、The Return Of The Other,Eurocentrism vs. GlobalismPresentation by Juliana and Judit,PLAN,Eurocentrism I round: Civil society as a Western concept Eurocentrism II round: Euromarxism as a context Brenners argument Critique Synthesis,DEFINITION,EUROCENTRISM: Form of ethnocentrism Being centered on Euro
2、pe or the Europeans, especially reflecting a tendency to interpret the world in terms of western and especially European values and experiences The belief that European culture is superior to all others An inability to appreciate Non-European cultures An inability to see a common humanity and human
3、condition facing all women and men in all cultures and societies beneath the surface variations in social and cultural traditions,Civil Society,EUROPEAN CONCEPT Free market and Democracy Representation Parliamentary government Pluralistic individualistic Justice and laws Human rights Rationality and
4、 Modern knowledge system,Civil Society,WESTERN CONCEPT OF THE OTHER Formulated as “lack”, which means: Authoritarian Absolutist regime Static Despotism Irrational Stagnant and oriental mode of production,Goodys Critique on Eurocentism,Extreme universalism vs. cultural relativism Achievements of Meso
5、potamia and Arab Near East Indian and Chinese trade systems in Antiquity Eastern knowledge systems Sung encyclopedias Different kinds of democracy and representation Not identical but similar regimes Examples: Civil society in pre-colonial Africa Communities with alternative lifestyle in Asia,Euroma
6、rxism as a Context,Post Vietnam radical thought Reactionary EuromarxismBrenners article needs to be placed in the context of this debate,Brenner on Capitalism,“Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe” (1976) Marxist critique “The origins of capitalist development:
7、A critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism” (1977) restatement of the theory about the European origins of capitalism critique of “Third-Worldist“ deviations in modern radical scholarship Two main characteristics: eurocentrism and diffusionism,R. Brenners “Agrarian Roots of European Capitalism”,Social-prope
8、rty systems (class & property): Historically developed Impose the course of the economic evolution (income distribution & productive forces development) Feudalism case economic stagnation and involution: Class reproducing strategies, incompatible with requirements of growth Declining productivity an
9、d socio-economic crisis,Feudalism mechanism of class reproduction,classes,lords,peasants,MORE!,surplus extraction by means of extra-economic compulsion,FOOD, MASTER,production for subsistence,No specializations of productive units No systematic reinvestments of surpluses No technical innovation,The
10、Breakthrough,SELF-SUSTAINING GROWTHBreakthrough of the system of lordly surplus extraction by means of extra-economic compulsory Undermining the process of full peasant ownership of the land,Novel social-property system,ORGANIZERS OF PRODUCTION,DIRECT PRODUCERS,MEANS OF REPRODUTION/SUBSISTENCE (espe
11、cially land and labor),MARKET/COMPETITION,SELL/BUY,Specializations of productive units Systematic reinvestments of surpluses Technical innovation,Differences within Europe,Different long-term processes of class formation in the various regions Demographic growth and declining labor productivity Vari
12、ous property settlement in different places Different forms and outcomes of the class conflicts as response to it There was no simple “unilinear drift” towards capitalism by economic evolution no trans-historical laws,England,Aristocracy High level of solidarity Self-organization (military obligator
13、y) Common interests Need of their mutual relationship regulation Total law domination on peasantry Monarchy Increasing capacity as a reflection on the aristocracy coherence Kings law to freeman (exception of the unfree peasants) Reintensification of the seigneur power Decentralized surplus extractio
14、n by extra-economic compulsion,England,Peasantry Highly dependant on aristocracy Even density of the population Separated from the land Economy development Competitive rates of land Export (wool, cloth production) Industrial employment based on wage labor Increase of agricultural production Economic
15、 differentiation of the peasantry no choice but compete and innovate End of political and economical fusion,France,Aristocracy Competing feudal lords Involved in the kings court as employed Conditional domination over the peasantry From monarchy to absolutism as new form of centralism Extreme fragme
16、ntarisation Lack of effective political organization Centralized system of surplus extraction over the aristocracy (kings household) Accepting peasants appeals on lords Custom laws Tax office state Loyalty through private proper rights private property in public sphere,France,Peasantry United peasan
17、try community which can not be expelled from land Peasant mobility Royal taxes, collected by peasantry Greater consumption possibilities more surplus of their own to reinvenst Population growth Strengthening of the peasantry brought renewal of the old peasant-base economy Pulverization and leveling
18、of the peasantry,Economy Comparison,ENGLAND Capitalistic-agricultural system Commercial economy based on high quality production Export - import economy Independent regional specialization Once and for all improvement and innovation,FRANCE Peasant possessors Static type of agricultural system No qua
19、litative agricultural development for economic growth,Criticism,Dobb-Sweezy debate BlautAndre Gunder Frank,Jim Blaut,England is nothing special Asia, Africa showed the same level of development in terms of: Untied peasantry, cash tenancy, rural wage labor, large scale production for sale, peasant st
20、ruggle, urban processes, commercial activities Why Europe? Location and accessibility Colonial accumulation was the basic external cause of European emergence,Andre Gunder Frank,Key point: Belief in the continuous history and development of a single world system in Afro-Eurasia for at least 5,000 ye
21、ars. Emphasis on trade relations process of capital accumulation center-periphery structure is one of the characteristics of the world system alternation between hegemony and rivalry long economic cycles of ascending and descending phases,Wallerstein versus Gunder,Discontinuity versus continuity ”Th
22、e West first bought itself a third class seat on the Asian economic train, then leased a whole railway carriage, and only in the nineteenth century managed to displace Asians from the locomotive” (Gunder),Implications,European exceptonalism is a myth It is no use to talk of modes and transitions “Th
23、e ceaseless quest of modern historians looking for the origins and roots of capitalism is not much better than the alchemists search for the philosophers stone that transforms base metal into gold.“ Indeed, that is the case not only for the origins and roots, but the very existence and meaning of “c
24、apitalism.“ So, best just forget about it, and get on with our inquiry into the reality of “universal history, wie es eigentlich gewesen ist.” (Chaudhuri),Has capitalism ever been born?,The rise of Europe represented a hegemonic shift from East to West It is impossible to specify what sets the present world system apart from previous ones Ceaseless accumulation Trinity of center/periphery, A/B phased cycles, and hegemony/ rivalry,How to do history?,Gunders recommendationsAnd yours? What do we gain and lose with each approach?,Thank you!,
