Modular Approach to the Theorization of Capital
Description
S.A. Hamed and Barry K. Gils:
"Capital entails a set of radically interrelated social relational and sociohistorical processes and mechanisms. The nature of capital is not only processual but also modular, meaning that capital engages manifold interactive socio-ecological processes. Multiple theories have been developed to provide explanations of these processes. However, the multisystemic mechanisms through which these processes ‘interface’ and their constantly evolving relative positions to one another (the ‘architecture of capital’) have not previously been the subject of integrative theorization. On the other hand, producing an all-inclusive fixed definition has become unfeasible, and even pointless, since the modularity of network systems of capital has significantly increased. The modular nature of capitalist relations thus requires a modular approach to (re)defining capital.
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Our approach to developing a modular explanatory framework assumes that no organically evolved social formation can be a closed system, and therefore, the aim of theory should not simply be reduced to deductive inferences around constant conjunctions of events. However, hierarchical social formations (such as slavery, feudalism, capitalism, statism, and their subtypes) are all systems of subjugation that enforce closure by creating self-serving closed circuits of fetish value production and actively suppressing and perverting any forces that threaten such closure.
A new conception of capital, suitable for theorizing capitalist social relations and societies, needs to be delineated in a modular construct consisting of elements/subdivides that are analytically distinguished to represent the reality of capital heuristically, in an ideal–typical manner. A modular definition of capital redefines the concept in the form of ideally constructed modules of interdependent social mechanisms. In this way, capital is analytically deconstructed into its constituent processes (modules) and is discussed closely in association with counter-capital processes, thus perceived as a dynamic rather than a fixed notion. Capital and its antipodal social forms are profoundly entangled, both historically and ideologically. Therefore, the new modular model has a double manifestation, contrasted from one another only for analytical purposes (see Figures 4.1 and 4.2). In summary, based on this new model, the complete process of building and utilizing ‘fetish value,’ that is, decommonization, involves converting what is a causal source of ‘true value’ (in the commonist state of being) into a source of ‘fetish value’ (under capital). As described in detail in the next chapter, this process of perversion is composed of the reification, fetishization, and appropriation of the commoning sources of true value. These commoning sources, when transformed under capital, are turned into sources of fetish value."
(https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/290382/1/9781003805588.pdf)