Capital and Power in the Global Political Economy (YorkU, AS4291 3.0, Undergraduate)

What is capital? Is it a material thing or social relation? What is political about it and how does it relate to power? What is the role of capital in the broader international political economy? The seminar examines such questions, both theoretically and historically. The first part deals with basic conceptions of capital, emphasizing the interaction between productivity and power, and examining how this interaction affected the evolution of transnational corporations. The second part looks at the changing relationship of business enterprise and states, illustrated for example by the three-way interplay between petroleum and armament firms, superpower confrontation, and Middle-East ‘energy conflicts.’ The third part focuses on the globalization of ownership and its domestic ramifications. Particular emphasis is put on the links between capital mobility and social transformation, such as the (re)capitalization of Russia, the Asian crisis and the changing ‘Asian model’, and the dramatic U-turns from ethnic conflict to transnational liberalism in South Africa and Israel.