This book provides an overdue critical re-engagement with the analytical approach exemplified by the work of Harold Wolpe, who was a key theorist within the liberation movement. It probes the following broad questions: how do we understand the trajectory of the post-apartheid period, how did the current situation come about in the transformation, how does the current situation relate to how a post-apartheid society was conceived in anticipation, and what are the implications of what have been failed ambitions for progressives?

The contributions to this volume cohere around the following themes: labour and capital in post-apartheid South Africa, the post-apartheid South African economy, the state and transformation of South African society, and social policy in post-apartheid South Africa. The aim is not to provide a common or coherent theoretical perspective, but rather to probe a core problematic and set of theoretical concerns.

The contributing authors explore not only historical and contemporary specifics, but deploy and reflect on theoretical tools that allow us to make sense of those specifics and to engage with the dynamics of race and class, and the form and functioning of the state, including its articulation with an increasingly financialised form of global capitalism.

Macroeconomics is your guide to how economics shape how the world functions today. But too often our understanding is based on orthodox, dogmatic analysis. This distinctive book draws upon years of critical questioning and teaching and exposes how macroeconomic theory has evolved from its origins to its current impoverished and extreme state. Moving from the Keynesian Revolution to the Monetarist Counter-Revolution, through to New Classical Economics and New Consensus Macroeconomics, the authors both elaborate and question the methods and content of macroeconomic theory at a level appropriate for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Macroeconomics provides a unique alternative to the multitude of standard textbooks by locating macroeconomic theory in its own history. It will be perfect for those studying macroeconomics, as well as for those looking for a new way to understand our increasingly complicated economic system. It is accompanied by a counterpart Microeconomics: A Critical Companion.

Understanding consumption requires looking at the systems by which goods and services are provided - not just how they are produced but the historically evolved structures, power relations and cultures within which they are located. The Systems of Provision approach provides an interdisciplinary framework for unpacking these complex issues. This book provides a comprehensive account of the Systems of Provision approach, setting out core concepts and theoretical origins alongside numerous case studies. The book combines fresh understandings of everyday consumption using examples from food, housing, and water, with implications for society's major challenges, including inequality, climate change, and prospects for capitalism. Readers do not require prior knowledge across the subject matter covered but the text remains significant for accomplished researchers and policymakers, especially those interested in the messy real world realities underpinning who gets what, how, and why across public and private provision in global, national, and historical contexts.

The essays in this edited collection, first published in 1986, focus on important debates surrounding the central Marxian problem of the transformation of values into prices. The collection brings together major contributions on the value theory debate from the decade prior to the book's publication, and assesses the debate's significance for wider issues. Value theory emerges as much more than a technical relation between labour time and prices, and the structure of the capitalist economy is scrutinised. This is a relevant and comprehensive work, valuable to students, academics and professionals with an interest in political and Marxist economy.

The coal industry has always occupied a symbolic place in British economic and political life, inspiring debates and arousing passions throughout the last two centuries. This account of the economics of coal, first published in 1990, is unique in its comprehensive three-part approach. First, Ben Fine charts the ways in which the theoretical understanding of the British coal industry has changed over the past two centuries and discusses the arguments surrounding public ownership versus the privatization of the industry. In the second part, the book presents a critical assessment of the existing literature and challenges the well-established orthodoxies by close theoretical and empirical argument. Finally, attention is paid to the role of landed property and the processes of technical change. An interesting analysis of the complex relationship between industrial change and political economy and an important contribution to economics, this study will be of great value to students of the theory and history of industrial change and the British coal industry.

Economics has become a monolithic science, variously described as formalistic and autistic with neoclassical orthodoxy reigning supreme. So argue Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine in this new major work of critical recollection. The authors show how economics was once rich, diverse, multidimensional and pluralistic, and unravel the processes that lead to orthodoxy's current predicament. The book details how political economy became economics through the desocialisation and the dehistoricisation of the dismal science, accompanied by the separation of economics from the other social sciences, especially economic history and sociology. It is argued that recent attempts from within economics to address the social and the historical have failed to acknowledge long standing debates amongst economists, historians and other social scientists. This has resulted in an impoverished historical and social content within mainstream economics. The book ranges over the shifting role of the historical and the social in economic theory, the shifting boundaries between the economic and the non-economic, all within a methodological context. Schools of thought and individuals, that have been neglected or marginalised, are treated in full, including classical political economy and Marx, the German and British historical schools, American institutionalism, Weber and Schumpeter and their programme of Socialoekonomik, and the Austrian school. At the same time, developments within the mainstream tradition from marginalism through Marshall and Keynes to general equilibrium theory are also scrutinised, and the clashes between the various camps from the famous Methodenstreit to the fierce debates of the 1930s and beyond brought to the fore. The prime rationale underpinning this account drawn from the past is to put the case for political economy back on the agenda. This is done by treating economics as a social science once again, rather than as a positive science, as has been the inclination since the time of Jevons and Walras. It involves transcending the boundaries of the social sciences, but in a particular way that is in exactly the opposite direction now being taken by "economics imperialism". Drawing on the rich traditions of the past, the reintroduction and full incorporation of the social and the historical into the main corpus of political economy will be possible in the future.

This book is a commanding assessment of labour market theory across the social sciences. It provides a radically original critique of labour market theory, which draws constructively but critically on existing literature. The work:
* contributes to the debates on key issues in labour economics such as unemployment, gender, equal pay and the minimum theory
* illustrates the policy implications in empirical studies
* supplements existing orthodox labour market theory texts.

This Companion takes stock of the trajectory, achievements, shortcomings and prospects of Marxist political economy. It reflects the contributors' shared commitment to bringing the methods, theories and concepts of Marx himself to bear across a wide range of topics and perspectives, and it provides a testimony to the continuing purpose and vitality of Marxist political economy. Some of the contributions found here offer an exposition of basic concepts, accessible to the general reader, laying out Marx's own contribution, its significance, and subsequent positions and debates with and within Marxist political economy. The authors also offer assessments of historical developments to and within capitalism, and of its current character and prospects. Other chapters adopt a mirror-image approach of pinpointing the conditions of contemporary capitalism as a way of interrogating the continuing salience of Marxist analysis. As a whole, the volume analyzes Marxist political economy in three areas: the critique of mainstream economics in all of its versions; the critical presence of Marxist political economy within, and its influence upon, each of the social science disciplines; and, cutting across these, the analysis of specific topics that straddle disciplinary boundaries. This volume will inform and inspire a new generation of students and scholars to become familiar with Marxist political economy from an enlightened and unprejudiced position, and to use their knowledge as both a resource and gateway to future study.

This collection offers pathbreaking framing of the material culture of financialisation. It begins with a tight definition of financialisation in order to distinguish the phenomenon of financialisation from its effects and from the looser associations prevalent within much of the literature such as the presence of credit or even simply (more extensive) monetary relations. To locate financialisation within economic and social reproduction, of which material culture is a part, close attention is paid to the distinctive forms of financialisation arising from commodification, commodity form and commodity calculation. The differences in the extent to which, and how, these prevail are addressed through the innovative system of provision approach and its framing of material culture through use of ten distinctive attributes of such cultures, known as the 10Cs (Constructed, Construed, Conforming, Commodified, Contextual, Contradictory, Closed, Contested, Collective and Chaotic). This framing of the cultures attached to financialisation is then illustrated through case studies demonstrating the diverse ways in which shifting cultures have served to embed financialisation in our daily lives. After a discussion of the material culture of financialisation itself there are two sector examples which review financial cultures in the provision of water and housing. These are followed by considerations of financialisation in financial literacy and financial inclusion, the media and, finally, well-being. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of New Political Economy.

This excellent book, newly available in paperback, addresses the growing dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal post-Washington consensus. The concern of the contributors in writing this collection was that this consensus has established itself as a new orthodoxy, more powerful and widespread than its predecessor. This broad-ranging critique explains that without a much broader political economy the consensus is unlikely to provide a coherent framework for successful development policies. Development Policy in the 21st Century is unique in its depth and assesses the postures of the new consensus topic by topic, whilst posing strong alternatives. It will improve and stimulate the reader's understanding of this important area, and is required reading for any student, academic or interested reader that wishes to understand one of the most important issues in international economics.

The coal industry has always occupied a symbolic place in British economic and political life, inspiring debates and arousing passions throughout the last two centuries. This account of the economics of coal, first published in 1990, is unique in its comprehensive three-part approach. First, Ben Fine charts the ways in which the theoretical understanding of the British coal industry has changed over the past two centuries and discusses the arguments surrounding public ownership versus the privatization of the industry. In the second part, the book presents a critical assessment of the existing literature and challenges the well-established orthodoxies by close theoretical and empirical argument. Finally, attention is paid to the role of landed property and the processes of technical change. An interesting analysis of the complex relationship between industrial change and political economy and an important contribution to economics, this study will be of great value to students of the theory and history of industrial change and the British coal industry.

The essays in this edited collection, first published in 1986, focus on important debates surrounding the central Marxian problem of the transformation of values into prices. The collection brings together major contributions on the value theory debate from the decade prior to the book's publication, and assesses the debate's significance for wider issues. Value theory emerges as much more than a technical relation between labour time and prices, and the structure of the capitalist economy is scrutinised. This is a relevant and comprehensive work, valuable to students, academics and professionals with an interest in political and Marxist economy.

The Political Economy of Diet and Health continues the exploration of food systems theory begun in the author's previous publications. It presents a critical exposition of food systems theory and analyses the existing approaches to food consumption. Subjects include: * resolving the diet paradox * the impact of the EU * the lack of policy in the UK * an exploration of the 'diseases of affluence'.

First published in 1992, Women's Employment and the Capitalist Family is an analysis of the contemporary political interest in the position of women. The author critically assesses much of the literature examining the rapidly changing lives of women and contributes to it by offering an explanation of women's labour-market participation. In particular, the book deals with the domestic labour market debate, the role of patriarchy theory, gender and labour-market theory, periodising the capitalist family and the specific position of working women in the British economy. Despite the theoretical stand-point, the book avoids technicalities and is accessible to a wide, interdisciplinary audience.

First published in 1992, Women's Employment and the Capitalist Family is an analysis of the contemporary political interest in the position of women. The author critically assesses much of the literature examining the rapidly changing lives of women and contributes to it by offering an explanation of women's labour-market participation. In particular, the book deals with the domestic labour market debate, the role of patriarchy theory, gender and labour-market theory, periodising the capitalist family and the specific position of working women in the British economy. Despite the theoretical stand-point, the book avoids technicalities and is accessible to a wide, interdisciplinary audience.

Is or has economics ever been the imperial social science? Could or should it ever be so? These are the central concerns of this book. It involves a critical reflection on the process of how economics became the way it is, in terms of a narrow and intolerant orthodoxy, that has, nonetheless, increasingly directed its attention to appropriating the subject matter of other social sciences through the process termed "economics imperialism." In other words, the book addresses the shifting boundaries between economics and the other social sciences as seen from the confines of the dismal science, with some reflection on the responses to the economic imperialists by other disciplines.

Significantly, an old economics imperialism is identified of the "as if market" style most closely associated with Gary Becker, the public choice theory of Buchanan and Tullock and cliometrics. But this has given way to a more "revolutionary" form of economics imperialism associated with the information-theoretic economics of Akerlof and Stiglitz, and the new institutional economics of Coase, Wiliamson and North. Embracing one "new" field after another, economics imperialism reaches its most extreme version in the form of "freakonomics," the economic theory of everything on the basis of the most shallow principles.

By way of contrast and as a guiding critical thread, a thorough review is offered of the appropriate principles underpinning political economy and its relationship to social science, and how these have been and continue to be deployed. The case is made for political economy with an interdisciplinary character, able to bridge the gap between economics and other social sciences, and draw upon and interrogate the nature of contemporary capitalism.

Is or has economics ever been the imperial social science? Could or should it ever be so? These are the central concerns of this book. It involves a critical reflection on the process of how economics became the way it is, in terms of a narrow and intolerant orthodoxy, that has, nonetheless, increasingly directed its attention to appropriating the subject matter of other social sciences through the process termed "economics imperialism". In other words, the book addresses the shifting boundaries between economics and the other social sciences as seen from the confines of the dismal science, with some reflection on the responses to the economic imperialists by other disciplines. Significantly, an old economics imperialism is identified of the "as if market" style most closely associated with Gary Becker, the public choice theory of Buchanan and Tullock and cliometrics. But this has given way to a more "revolutionary" form of economics imperialism associated with the information-theoretic economics of Akerlof and Stiglitz, and the new institutional economics of Coase, Wiliamson and North. Embracing one "new" field after another, economics imperialism reaches its most extreme version in the form of "freakonomics", the economic theory of everything on the basis of the most shallow principles. By way of contrast and as a guiding critical thread, a thorough review is offered of the appropriate principles underpinning political economy and its relationship to social science, and how these have been and continue to be deployed. The case is made for political economy with an interdisciplinary character, able to bridge the gap between economics and other social sciences, and draw upon and interrogate the nature of contemporary capitalism.

Economics has become a monolithic science, variously described as formalistic and autistic with neoclassical orthodoxy reigning supreme. So argue Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine in this new major work of critical recollection. The authors show how economics was once rich, diverse, multidimensional and pluralistic, and unravel the processes that lead to orthodoxy's current predicament. The book details how political economy became economics through the desocialisation and the dehistoricisation of the dismal science, accompanied by the separation of economics from the other social sciences, especially economic history and sociology. It is argued that recent attempts from within economics to address the social and the historical have failed to acknowledge long standing debates amongst economists, historians and other social scientists. This has resulted in an impoverished historical and social content within mainstream economics. The book ranges over the shifting role of the historical and the social in economic theory, the shifting boundaries between the economic and the non-economic, all within a methodological context. Schools of thought and individuals, that have been neglected or marginalised, are treated in full, including classical political economy and Marx, the German and British historical schools, American institutionalism, Weber and Schumpeter and their programme of Socialoekonomik, and the Austrian school. At the same time, developments within the mainstream tradition from marginalism through Marshall and Keynes to general equilibrium theory are also scrutinised, and the clashes between the various camps from the famous Methodenstreit to the fierce debates of the 1930s and beyond brought to the fore. The prime rationale underpinning this account drawn from the past is to put the case for political economy back on the agenda. This is done by treating economics as a social science once again, rather than as a positive science, as has been the inclination since the time of Jevons and Walras. It involves transcending the boundaries of the social sciences, but in a particular way that is in exactly the opposite direction now being taken by "economics imperialism". Drawing on the rich traditions of the past, the reintroduction and full incorporation of the social and the historical into the main corpus of political economy will be possible in the future.

Contents:
1. Neither the Washington nor the Post-Washington Consensus: an introduction Ben Fine
2. Financial systems design and the Post-Washington Consensus Costas Lapavitsas and Sedat Aybar
3. Privatization and the Post-Washington Consensus: between the lab and the real world? Kate Bayliss and Christopher Cramer
4. From Washington to post Washington: does it matter for industrial policy? Sonali Deraniyagala
5. Consensus in Washington, upheaval in East Asia Dic Lo
6. The new political economy of corruption Mushtaq H. Khan
7. The social capital of the World Bank Ben Fine
8. Education and the Post-Washington Consensus Ben Fine and Pauline Rose
9. The Post-Washington consensus and lending operations in agriculture: new rhetoric and old operational realities Jonathan Pincus

Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction and Overview 2. From Economics Imperialism to Globalization 3. The World of Commodities 4. Use Value and Consumption 5. Consumption through Systems of Provision 6. Systems of Provision and Cultural Systems 7. Economics and Consumption 8. What is Consumer Society? 9. Whatever Happened to Public Consumption? 10 Welfarism in Light of Globalization 11. Whither Consumption Studies?

Consumption has become one of the leading topics across the social sciences and vocational disciplines such as marketing and business studies. In this comprehensively updated and revised new edition, traditional approaches as well as the most recent literature are fully addressed and incorporated, with wide reference to theoretical and empirical work. Fine's refreshing and authoritative text includes a critical examination of such themes as:

*economics imperialism and globalization
*the world of commodities
*systems of provision and culture
*the consumer society
*public consumption.

This book presents an updated analysis of the cluttered landscape of studies of consumption that will make it required reading for students from a wide range of backgrounds including political economy, history and social science courses generally.

The Post-Washington Consensus has succeeded in becoming the new theoretical underpinning for the World Bank's Structural Adjustment policies in developing countries. This broad-ranging critique explains that without a much broader political economy the Post-Washington Consensus is unlikely to provide a coherent framework for successful development policies.
Development Policy in the 21st Century is unique in its depth and assesses the postures of the new consensus topic by topic, whilst posing strong alternatives. It will improve and stimulate the reader's understanding of this important area, and is highly recommended to advanced students and professionals

Contents:
Part One; 1: Introduction and Overview Part Two: 2: The Enigma and Fluidity of Capital 3: Bringing the Social Back In 4: Bourdieu's Social Capital: From Distinction to Extinction 5: Bringing Rational Choice Back In 6: Making the Benchmark Work for Social Theory 7: The Expanding Universe of Social Capital; Part Three: 8: Making the Post-Washington Consensus 9: World Banking on Social Capital 10: Measuring Social Capital - How Long is a Missing Link?; Part Four: Social Capital versus Political Economy