PhD Thesis by Bruno Lamas
Tese aprovada por unanimidade com distinção e louvor (10 de janeiro de 2024)
Embora a escravat... more Tese aprovada por unanimidade com distinção e louvor (10 de janeiro de 2024)
Embora a escravatura seja ilegal em todo o mundo, diversos organismos internacionais têm avançado com estimativas de milhões de escravos ou de situações próximas da escravatura no mundo contemporâneo. Este paradoxo da chamada “escravatura moderna” e sua controvérsia apenas pode começar a ser esclarecido a partir duma análise retrospectiva da constituição e dinâmica histórica da forma social do capitalismo e das correspondentes metamorfoses da escravatura desde o século XV. Através de um aprofundamento do conceito de escravatura e da historicidade das categorias fundamentais da crítica da economia política marxiana, à semelhança do realizado recentemente pelo paradigma da “crítica do valor”, são discutidos os materiais empíricos e grelhas conceptuais envolvidos nos sucessivos debates económicos e historiográficos das últimas décadas sobre a relação, tantas vezes considerada paradoxal, entre escravatura e capitalismo. O autor procura mostrar que o esclarecimento dessa relação processual passa pela historicidade das formas sócio-económicas do “trabalho” e da “autopropriedade”.
Although slavery is illegal throughout the world, several international organizations have advanced estimates of millions of slaves or situations close to slavery in the contemporary world. This paradox of the so-called “modern slavery” and its controversy can only begin to be clarified from a retrospective analysis of the constitution and historical dynamics of the social form of capitalism and the corresponding metamorphoses of slavery since the 15th century. Through a deepening of the concept of slavery and the historicity of the fundamental categories of the Marxian critique of political economy, similarly to what was recently carried out by the paradigm of the “critique of value”, the empirical materials and conceptual frameworks involved in the successive economic and historiographical debates are discussed. of recent decades on the relationship, so often considered paradoxical, between slavery and capitalism. The author seeks to show that the clarification of this procedural relationship passes through the historicity of the socio-economic forms of “labor” and “self-ownership”.
In progress by Bruno Lamas
Book Chapters by Bruno Lamas
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History, 2023
This chapter seeks to clarify the most relevant tensions at stake in the notion of “modern slaver... more This chapter seeks to clarify the most relevant tensions at stake in the notion of “modern slavery”, considering it less as a discrete set of phenomena than as a controversy around the legitimate modes of perception and representation of various practices of human bondage and exploitation in the global economy. The first section presents the main conceptual steps taken from the abolition of chattel slavery to the umbrella term “modern slavery”; the second section presents an immanent critique of the ongoing classification struggles around “modern slavery”; the third and final section considers the so-called “root causes” and their frameworks.
Books by Bruno Lamas
Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lectures Series, 2021
Aristotle once said that if looms were to weave by themselves masters would not need slaves. The ... more Aristotle once said that if looms were to weave by themselves masters would not need slaves. The historical trajectory of capitalism seems to place humanity in the exact opposite situation: on the one hand, the accelerated scientific development of the productive forces and the rise of automation processes, on the other hand, a diversification and intensification on a worldwide scale of forms of “unfree labour,” often classified as “modern slavery.” Several studies have approached these phenomena as remnants of “pre-capitalism;” others see them as moments of an “ongoing primitive accumulation;” still others interpret them as extreme cases of “fully functional capitalism” or “neoliberal capitalism.” In this paper the author intends (i) to show the different theoretical problems of these approaches and (ii) to argue that the phenomena of “modern slavery” are more adequately understood through a perspective of global decomposition of capitalism, a process that began with the third industrial revolution of microelectronics and is now accelerating with the emerging automation, intensifying a violent logic of demobilization of labour power and containment of “superfluous” populations.
Papers by Bruno Lamas
Flauta de Luz - n.º8 , 2021
1. Escravatura, modernização e colapso
2. Génese e ascensão do «complexo industrial neo-abolic... more 1. Escravatura, modernização e colapso
2. Génese e ascensão do «complexo industrial neo-abolicionista»
3. A estranha ribalta do «tráfico de seres humanos»
4. Imperialismo de segurança e exclusão europeu e a gestão das migrações
5. Os «mercados de escravos» da Líbia como paradigma do colapso avançado e sua digestão ideológica
Comparativ - Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und Vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, 2020
https://www.comparativ.net/v2/article/view/3083
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Capital is a form of "abstract wealth" (Mar... more https://www.comparativ.net/v2/article/view/3083
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Capital is a form of "abstract wealth" (Marx), socially and historically specific to modern society and based on undifferentiated combustion of human energy: "abstract labour". The historical constitution of capitalism is the worldwide process of constituting that nexus between abstract wealth and abstract labour, effectively reducing human beings to mere carriers of bodily energy to be mobilized for the valorization of value. In this article, starting from a theoretical reflection on the historicity of three of the main categories of Marx's critique of political economy-value, labour, and abstract labour-I intend to (i) provide a general interpretation of the historical process of constitution of capitalism between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the transition from a newly created world system of monetary-wealth circulation to a world system of abstract labour; (ii) reflect on the role of slavery in this process and its relationship with the constitution of the specifically modern categories of labour and labour power; and (iii) show that, despite its past and common elements, it is the essential differences between the slave commodity and the labour power commodity through the self-ownership category that will ultimately become decisive for modern struggles for social recognition and the historical constitution of capitalism itself.
In the last two decades, the problematic classification of a vast number of very different phenom... more In the last two decades, the problematic classification of a vast number of very different phenomena as “modern slavery” has become widespread, with the leading role in the international media and political agenda of the topic of “human trafficking” being clear in comparison with the other phenomena included in the classification. If, on the one hand, this discourse has given greater public visibility to various atrocious realities throughout the world, on the other hand, applying the emotionally charged term "slavery", it has historically and culturally framed them in an ideological way. For this reason, there have also been several criticisms of this dominant discourse, both to the inappropriate use of the “slavery” category and to the fact that it tends to conceal the structural relations of “human trafficking” with increasing economic and social inequalities, neoliberal labor policies, and the restrictive immigration policies of developed states, which end up putting migrants in situations of even greater vulnerability and risk, exposed precisely to the pitfalls of what has been called “modern slavery”. In this presentation we will try to show: (i) that both the “modern slavery” discourse and its critics fail to capture the fundamental logic of superfluity of the world labor crisis that underlies the “modern slavery” phenomena; (ii) that the conceptual and legal ambiguities of “modern slavery” and “human trafficking” have in fact been used to legitimize certain policies for the management of populations considered superfluous from the point of view of capitalism.
Nas últimas duas décadas generalizou-se a problemática classificação de um número vasto de fenóme... more Nas últimas duas décadas generalizou-se a problemática classificação de um número vasto de fenómenos muito distintos como "escravatura moderna", sendo evidente o protagonismo na agenda mediática e política internacional do tema do "tráfico de seres humanos" em comparação com os outros fenómenos incluídos na classificação. Se por um lado este discurso deu maior visibilidade pública a diversas realidades atrozes existentes por todo o mundo, por outro lado, aplicando-lhes o termo emocionalmente carregado de "escravatura", enquadrou-as historicamente e culturalmente de um modo ideológico. Têm por isso surgido também diversas críticas a este discurso dominante, tanto ao uso inadequado da categoria "escravatura" como ao facto de serem escamoteadas as relações estruturais do "tráfico de seres humanos" com as crescentes desigualdades económicas e sociais, com as políticas laborais neoliberais e com as políticas restritivas de imigração dos estados dos países desenvolvidos, e que acabam por colocar os migrantes em situações de ainda maior vulnerabilidade e risco, expostos justamente às armadilhas do que se tem chamado "escravatura moderna". Nesta comunicação procuraremos mostrar: (i) que tanto o discurso da "escravatura moderna" como os seus críticos não conseguem captar a lógica fundamental de superfluidade da crise mundial do trabalho que está na base dos fenómenos da "escravatura moderna"; (ii) que as ambiguidades conceptuais e jurídicas da "escravatura moderna" e do "tráfico de seres humanos" têm sido de facto usadas para legitimar determinadas políticas de gestão das populações consideradas supérfluas do ponto de vista do capitalismo.
Paper presented in Slavery Past, Present & Future: 4th Global Meeting, University of Innsbruck, Austria (June 17, 2019), 2019
In the last two decades, the problematic classification of a vast number of very different phenom... more In the last two decades, the problematic classification of a vast number of very different phenomena as "modern slavery" has been generalized. Controversies have been mostly centered on the legitimacy and effects of the use of the word "slavery". However, relatively little space has been given to explanations for the structural causes of the different phenomena. While the dominant discourse refers to exponential demographic growth, globalization, and government corruption, its critics denounce the misuse of the term "slavery" and highlight the consequences of neoliberalism, poverty, and restrictive immigration policies. But these explanations are seldom theoretically framed in the historical trajectory of the capitalist social totality. It is quite common to find arguments that more or less explicitly address "modern slavery" either as "pre-capitalist", as moments of an "ongoing primitive accumulation", as something "outside capitalism" or as extreme cases of a "fully functional" capitalism. Conversely, it is our understanding that the different phenomena under the concept of "modern slavery" are more adequately understood through the perspective of a global crisis of capitalism. Assuming "value" and "labor" as specifically modern categories that provide capitalist society with a unique historical dynamic, we intend to show: (1) that capitalism has historically constituted itself as a world labor society in which chattel-slavery played a fundamental role; (2) that since the start of the third industrial revolution of microelectronics this global social form began gradually to collapse in an uneven way, generating everywhere an increasing number of superfluous self-owners; (3) that this structural tendency of superfluity underlies the social "vulnerability" identified by "modern slavery" discourse and its critics; and (4) that, regardless of our concept of "slavery", we should take very seriously the predictions that point to a very likely exponential increase of "modern slavery" as a result of the emerging Industry 4.0.
A crítica da economia política de Karl Marx é atravessada por uma profunda ambiguidade quanto ao ... more A crítica da economia política de Karl Marx é atravessada por uma profunda ambiguidade quanto ao estatuto teórico da categoria "trabalho", surgindo em muitas situações como uma categoria ontológica supostamente aplicável a toda a história humana, enquanto em algumas ocasiões Marx não deixa de apontar para o seu carácter histórico especificamente capitalista e momento fundamental da forma social fetichista moderna. Nesta comunicação olharemos para as reflexões de Marx a respeito dos aspectos lógicos e históricos da relação entre escravatura e capitalismo e procuraremos mostrar de que modo uma posição que assume o carácter histórico da categoria "trabalho", tal como tem vindo a ser feito nas últimas décadas pela chamada "crítica do valor e da dissociação", pode abrir novas perspectivas sobre o problema. Em primeiro lugar, consideraremos a questão da historicidade da categoria "trabalho"; em segundo lugar, veremos brevemente alguns aspectos do modo como Marx enquadrou o difícil problema dos escravos no seu projecto teórico de crítica da economia política; e finalmente olharemos para o seu uso metafórico do termo "escravatura".
O presente texto é a versão escrita ligeiramente alterada de uma comunicação realizada no Seminár... more O presente texto é a versão escrita ligeiramente alterada de uma comunicação realizada no Seminário de Investigação " Cidade e Comunismo " a 22 de Maio de 2017, uma iniciativa do Instituto de História Contemporânea – FCSH/Nova, em co-organização com o DINÂMIA'CET-IUL. Aqui recuperei algum do material já apresentado em outras ocasiões, organizando-o e desenvolvendo criticamente determinados aspectos das abordagens marxistas à chamada " questão urbana ". Por motivos de tempo não foi possível aprofundar tanto quanto gostaria as teses de Henri Lefebvre nem de apresentar e criticar as concepções de David Harvey. Mais tarde gostaria de voltar a este assunto de um modo mais demorado. As imagens que acompanham o texto foram projectadas durante a comunicação.
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PhD Thesis by Bruno Lamas
Embora a escravatura seja ilegal em todo o mundo, diversos organismos internacionais têm avançado com estimativas de milhões de escravos ou de situações próximas da escravatura no mundo contemporâneo. Este paradoxo da chamada “escravatura moderna” e sua controvérsia apenas pode começar a ser esclarecido a partir duma análise retrospectiva da constituição e dinâmica histórica da forma social do capitalismo e das correspondentes metamorfoses da escravatura desde o século XV. Através de um aprofundamento do conceito de escravatura e da historicidade das categorias fundamentais da crítica da economia política marxiana, à semelhança do realizado recentemente pelo paradigma da “crítica do valor”, são discutidos os materiais empíricos e grelhas conceptuais envolvidos nos sucessivos debates económicos e historiográficos das últimas décadas sobre a relação, tantas vezes considerada paradoxal, entre escravatura e capitalismo. O autor procura mostrar que o esclarecimento dessa relação processual passa pela historicidade das formas sócio-económicas do “trabalho” e da “autopropriedade”.
Although slavery is illegal throughout the world, several international organizations have advanced estimates of millions of slaves or situations close to slavery in the contemporary world. This paradox of the so-called “modern slavery” and its controversy can only begin to be clarified from a retrospective analysis of the constitution and historical dynamics of the social form of capitalism and the corresponding metamorphoses of slavery since the 15th century. Through a deepening of the concept of slavery and the historicity of the fundamental categories of the Marxian critique of political economy, similarly to what was recently carried out by the paradigm of the “critique of value”, the empirical materials and conceptual frameworks involved in the successive economic and historiographical debates are discussed. of recent decades on the relationship, so often considered paradoxical, between slavery and capitalism. The author seeks to show that the clarification of this procedural relationship passes through the historicity of the socio-economic forms of “labor” and “self-ownership”.
In progress by Bruno Lamas
Book Chapters by Bruno Lamas
Books by Bruno Lamas
Papers by Bruno Lamas
2. Génese e ascensão do «complexo industrial neo-abolicionista»
3. A estranha ribalta do «tráfico de seres humanos»
4. Imperialismo de segurança e exclusão europeu e a gestão das migrações
5. Os «mercados de escravos» da Líbia como paradigma do colapso avançado e sua digestão ideológica
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Capital is a form of "abstract wealth" (Marx), socially and historically specific to modern society and based on undifferentiated combustion of human energy: "abstract labour". The historical constitution of capitalism is the worldwide process of constituting that nexus between abstract wealth and abstract labour, effectively reducing human beings to mere carriers of bodily energy to be mobilized for the valorization of value. In this article, starting from a theoretical reflection on the historicity of three of the main categories of Marx's critique of political economy-value, labour, and abstract labour-I intend to (i) provide a general interpretation of the historical process of constitution of capitalism between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the transition from a newly created world system of monetary-wealth circulation to a world system of abstract labour; (ii) reflect on the role of slavery in this process and its relationship with the constitution of the specifically modern categories of labour and labour power; and (iii) show that, despite its past and common elements, it is the essential differences between the slave commodity and the labour power commodity through the self-ownership category that will ultimately become decisive for modern struggles for social recognition and the historical constitution of capitalism itself.
Embora a escravatura seja ilegal em todo o mundo, diversos organismos internacionais têm avançado com estimativas de milhões de escravos ou de situações próximas da escravatura no mundo contemporâneo. Este paradoxo da chamada “escravatura moderna” e sua controvérsia apenas pode começar a ser esclarecido a partir duma análise retrospectiva da constituição e dinâmica histórica da forma social do capitalismo e das correspondentes metamorfoses da escravatura desde o século XV. Através de um aprofundamento do conceito de escravatura e da historicidade das categorias fundamentais da crítica da economia política marxiana, à semelhança do realizado recentemente pelo paradigma da “crítica do valor”, são discutidos os materiais empíricos e grelhas conceptuais envolvidos nos sucessivos debates económicos e historiográficos das últimas décadas sobre a relação, tantas vezes considerada paradoxal, entre escravatura e capitalismo. O autor procura mostrar que o esclarecimento dessa relação processual passa pela historicidade das formas sócio-económicas do “trabalho” e da “autopropriedade”.
Although slavery is illegal throughout the world, several international organizations have advanced estimates of millions of slaves or situations close to slavery in the contemporary world. This paradox of the so-called “modern slavery” and its controversy can only begin to be clarified from a retrospective analysis of the constitution and historical dynamics of the social form of capitalism and the corresponding metamorphoses of slavery since the 15th century. Through a deepening of the concept of slavery and the historicity of the fundamental categories of the Marxian critique of political economy, similarly to what was recently carried out by the paradigm of the “critique of value”, the empirical materials and conceptual frameworks involved in the successive economic and historiographical debates are discussed. of recent decades on the relationship, so often considered paradoxical, between slavery and capitalism. The author seeks to show that the clarification of this procedural relationship passes through the historicity of the socio-economic forms of “labor” and “self-ownership”.
2. Génese e ascensão do «complexo industrial neo-abolicionista»
3. A estranha ribalta do «tráfico de seres humanos»
4. Imperialismo de segurança e exclusão europeu e a gestão das migrações
5. Os «mercados de escravos» da Líbia como paradigma do colapso avançado e sua digestão ideológica
----
Capital is a form of "abstract wealth" (Marx), socially and historically specific to modern society and based on undifferentiated combustion of human energy: "abstract labour". The historical constitution of capitalism is the worldwide process of constituting that nexus between abstract wealth and abstract labour, effectively reducing human beings to mere carriers of bodily energy to be mobilized for the valorization of value. In this article, starting from a theoretical reflection on the historicity of three of the main categories of Marx's critique of political economy-value, labour, and abstract labour-I intend to (i) provide a general interpretation of the historical process of constitution of capitalism between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the transition from a newly created world system of monetary-wealth circulation to a world system of abstract labour; (ii) reflect on the role of slavery in this process and its relationship with the constitution of the specifically modern categories of labour and labour power; and (iii) show that, despite its past and common elements, it is the essential differences between the slave commodity and the labour power commodity through the self-ownership category that will ultimately become decisive for modern struggles for social recognition and the historical constitution of capitalism itself.
Aristotle once said that if looms were to weave by themselves masters would not need slaves. The historical trajectory of capitalism seems to place humanity in the exact opposite situation: on the one hand, the accelerated scientific development of productive forces and rise of industrial automation processes, on the other, a worldwide diversification and intensification of forms of "unfree labor", often also classified as "modern slavery".
The Aristotelian hypothesis was not simply wrong; it was simply based on a form of material wealth presupposed in the society of its time. Capital, on the other hand, is a form of "abstract wealth" (Marx), socially and historically specific of modern society, based not on material wealth but on the undifferentiated "abstract labor" (Marx) represented in commodities and money. Mediated by widespread competition, this contradictory form of "abstract wealth" made "labor" the essence of modern socialization and provided capitalism with a historical dynamic unknown to premodern societies, and underpinned the secular historical process of external (colonization, etc.) and internal (rationalization of the productive processes, etc.) expansion of capital towards the full constitution of a world capitalist social reproduction. While this historical process has always been accompanied by various forms of "unfree labor", especially in the periphery and colonial systems, we can only understand them properly if we look at their mediations with the historical trajectory of capitalism.
Several studies have approached the current phenomena of "modern slavery" as a remnant of "pre-capitalism"; others see them as moments of an "ongoing primitive accumulation"; still others interpret them as extreme cases of "fully functional capitalism" or examples of "neoliberal capitalism".
In this lecture I intend: (i) to show the different theoretical problems of these approaches, which often work with immediate similarities and superficial historical analogies, and (ii) to argue that the current phenomena of "modern slavery" are more adequately understood through a perspective of global decomposition of capitalism, a process that began with the third industrial revolution of microelectronics and is now accelerating with the emerging automation, intensifying the violent logic of demobilization of labor power and containment of superfluous populations and affecting the global south in a particularly dramatic way.