Space, Regulation and the Periodization of Capitalism

Abstract

The project of periodizing capitalism will remain an inconsequential academic exercise unless it engages in closer reflection on its underlying theoretical foundations. On the basis of such reflection, it should be possible to differentiate concepts of the various stages, phases and crises of capitalist development (concepts which are often conflated) and, above all, to assess the potential of an action-oriented approach with the aim of overcoming entrenched power, exploitation and repression. We will attempt in the following analysis to use our own underlying theoretical concepts of periodization as a means to understand the present social context and the current developmental tendencies of capitalism. To study the breaks and continuities of capitalist development, we take up the regulation approach, an approach we believe can mediate between the Marxist theory of the capitalist mode of production and the concrete analysis of social formations, and thus produce a theory of the periodization of capitalist development.