Open Collections

Chilvers, Simon

University of British Columbia

Karl Marx is one of the most discussed thinkers of all time, but what if an unfamiliar theory of history exists within his texts? Would not many debates informed by their references to him need to be reconsidered? This study demonstrates that there is such a theory, and explains why, despite its merits, it has been suppressed. The point of departure is Marx’s idea of the mode of production of human life. Marxist political leaders after his death associated different modes of production with stages of history, and cited him to this effect. Yet by focussing on logical and factual contradictions by Marx, several hitherto ignored, this study reveals his abiding concern for combined modes of production. Noted is how, when modes of production are no longer effectively blocks of time in a sequence, what defines class exploitation, class struggle, or a relation of production, changes, as does the significance of their spatial organisation (vis-à-vis temporal change). Questioned is why geographers, who, it is shown, first turned to Marxism in the 1920s, never perceived this other theory, and their debt to German Idealism is held to be the main reason. It is further demonstrated how the field of economic geography requires something like the idea of mode of production in order to differentiate itself from economics, but that one-dimensional treatment of this idea has led to long-term problems and oversights best resolvable by engaging with Marx’s suppressed theory. To substantiate this claim, a case study is offered of some controversial development policies in India. Part ethnography, part documentation of corporate fraud, the findings are related to “Naxalite” rebel debates about feudalism and capitalism that inform subaltern politics in the region. The conclusion predicts why Marx’s suppressed theory will be more familiar in some places than others over the coming years.

Text

2024-04-29

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88055

Geography

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/