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| The idea behind the course is to begin thinking about the history of capital beyond its conventional Western trajectory and its very provincial debates on ‘transition’. It will keep the larger global history of markets and trade as the continuous backdrop of the rise of capitalism in the West. |
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| The course will be divided into two parts comprising four lectures each.
Part I will cover the history of capital and the idea of private property, going beyond the conventional histories of the ‘transition’ and will also explore the relationship of capital with the modern state-form and governmentality. It will also discuss the reification of markets and the emergence of economics as a discipline. |
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| Part II will revolve around contemporary capitalism – exploring notions of post-fordism, the thesis of postmodernity as the cultural logic of late capitalism, questions of consumerism and ‘consumer-society’. |
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Broadly the lectures will cover: |
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The conventional history of capital/ism. Capitalism and agrarian cultures. |
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Trade and commerce: Global chains. China, India and the Mediterranean; Islam, the Arab, Persian world and merchant capital. |
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Capital, governmentality and the modern-state. |
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Economics and Markets |
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Consumption and consumerism. Postmodernity. |
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Commodity cultures, Money, Individualism, Community. |
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Interrogating Capital: Is there any ‘outside’ to capital? |
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COURSE CO-ORDINATOR:
Aditya Nigam |
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