Ανάλυση της εξελισόμενης σύγκρουσης ανάμεσα στο δυτικό ιμπεριαλισμό και τον ανερχόμενο συνασπισμό... more Ανάλυση της εξελισόμενης σύγκρουσης ανάμεσα στο δυτικό ιμπεριαλισμό και τον ανερχόμενο συνασπισμό των BRICS, η προσπάθεια για την ανάπτυξη ενός πολυπολικού κόσμου, και η αναγκαιότητα μιας ανεξάρτητης διεθνικής και ταξικής στρατηγικής προς τον κομμουνισμό.
This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recen... more This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recent decades, as well as the limitations of the existing literature concerning this development. An alternative (Marxist) theoretical framework is then developed for the explication of the development of commodified tourism, the role of ecological and cultural (value) appropriation in the determination of capitalist profitability, and its developmental implications. As argued, this value and resource appropriation and the exploitation/appropriation dialectic have adverse socioeconomic and ecological implications, while leading to the rapid growth of tourism against other sectors. On the other hand, the cultural homogenization and ecological degradation brought about especially by mass tourism imply a self-limiting development of tourism itself. Concluding that the current mode of tourism development is ecologically and socially unsustainable, we end with a broad outline of a different persp...
This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recen... more This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recent decades, as well as the limitations of the existing literature concerning this development. An alternative (Marxist) theoretical framework is then developed for the explication of the development of commodified tourism, the role of ecological and cultural (value) appropriation in the determination of capitalist profitability, and its developmental implications. As argued, this value and resource appropriation and the exploitation/appropriation dialectic have adverse socioeconomic and ecological implications, while leading to the rapid growth of tourism against other sectors. On the other hand, the cultural homogenization and ecological degradation brought about especially by mass tourism imply a self-limiting development of tourism itself. Concluding that the current mode of tourism development is ecologically and socially unsustainable, we end with a broad outline of a different perspective of decommodified tourism within a post-capitalist development.
The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the l... more The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the last few years, has given rise to a variety of interpretations and strategies to face this crisis. Some researchers have suggested that the state is the single most effective agent capable of mobilizing the amount of resources and the policies required to overcome a crisis of such a broad scope and devastating impact. This paper analyzes the causes of the multifaceted and deepening socio-ecological crisis to show that the root cause behind this crisis is the capitalist mode of production itself. Subsequently, I interrogate those approaches proposing the state as a strategic mechanism to combat and overcome the crisis. It is outlined that the class-based (non-neutral) character of the state will tend to reproduce the prevailing capitalist relations of production, namely the basic conditions for the generation and exacerbation of this crisis. As is finally suggested, it is only with a revolutionary transformation of society that the working social majority will be able to radically undo the fundamental causes of the crisis and create the conditions for a peaceful and sustainable development on a planetary level.
ABSTRACT Under current circumstances, the lasting and exacerbated crisis of world capitalism, its... more ABSTRACT Under current circumstances, the lasting and exacerbated crisis of world capitalism, its far-reaching transformations, and intensified socio-political and geopolitical conflicts lead to highly uncertain conditions and an increasing world disorder. After some methodological remarks and a brief analysis of the recent developments of world capitalism, this article more specifically investigates the capital–state relations, and critically considers competing explanations (including imperialism, globalization, empire, transnational and totalitarian capitalism) of the currently evolving world (dis-)order, as well as the urgent search for new forms of global governance. Based on this analysis, an attempt is made to draw some conclusions concerning social movements and struggles for social change.
Scientific Regester of the University of Macedonia, 1996
While the "terms of trade" are shown to be an inadequate indicator of the distribution of the gai... more While the "terms of trade" are shown to be an inadequate indicator of the distribution of the gains from trade and the international division of labor, a Marxist investigation of transfers of value, which are considered as different forms of unequal exchange in its broadest sense, is proposed as an alternative and more pertinent way of addressing international distributional issues.
Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 2022
This article starts with a brief exploration of the multiple crises currently facing global capit... more This article starts with a brief exploration of the multiple crises currently facing global capitalism, encompassing over-accumulation crisis, an exacerbated environmental and ecological crisis, the evolving epidemiological crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and a dramatic cultural and ideological crisis. This manifold crisis is considered as a specific “capitalism pandemic.” The most important implications of this generalized crisis are subsequently analyzed, focusing in particular on globalization and its ecological implications associated more specifically with the COVID-19 pandemic. This general crisis raises the need of an imperative transformation beyond capitalism and towards socialism/communism. Finally, we briefly outline the main characteristics of communism as a specific form of social organization, and analyze the main aspects of a prolonged transformation period between capitalism and communism.
While public policy is usually associated with the creation of all those conditions promoting soc... more While public policy is usually associated with the creation of all those conditions promoting social welfare (the well-being of the great social majority), there are important reasons currently leading to a compromise of public policies and a cooptation of the content itself of a “public sector” and “public policy”. These include the capitalist control of the state, the conjunctural conditions of capitalist accumulation, the transnationalization of production and capital, and the shifting frontiers of commodity production determined by factors such as technological innovations, the class struggle balances, and the ideological hegemony of neo-liberalism. Instead of an abstractive reflection on the public/private conflict, we use some particular cases (education and knowledge, mass media, and tourism) to demonstrate the increasing tension between capitalist development and the really public interest. In spite of the currently drastic shrinkage and perversion of the public sector (poli...
ABSTRACT This paper presents a critique of mainstream growth ideology, as well as of a variety of... more ABSTRACT This paper presents a critique of mainstream growth ideology, as well as of a variety of neo-Malthusian or liberal approaches considering economic growth as an ideology, and “growth economies” as the main culprit of ecological crisis, while disconnecting growth from the prevailing capitalist mode of production. To tackle ecological crisis, they suggest economic de-growth or a steady-state economy, while often projecting the negative impact of economic growth to different forms of production. On the contrary, this paper considers economic growth as an inherent necessity of the capitalist mode of production and explores the socio-ecological conditions of economic growth and capitalist accumulation. With a brief reference to Greece, it is demonstrated that even a protracted recession cannot reverse the trend of environmental degradation and socio-ecological crisis. As argued, overcoming the current crisis requires overcoming not only economic growth, but capitalism itself.
This important collective volume is divided into four parts and includes, apart from the editors’... more This important collective volume is divided into four parts and includes, apart from the editors’ introduction, 17 chapters contributed mostly by young Marxist scholars from around the world. The aim of the volume is ‘to provide empirical validity to the hypothesis that the cause of recurring and regular economic crises or slumps ... can be found in Marx’s law of the tendential fall in the rate of profit’ (p. vii), a law considered by Marx himself as ‘the most important law in political economy’. As the editors explain,
Ανάλυση της εξελισόμενης σύγκρουσης ανάμεσα στο δυτικό ιμπεριαλισμό και τον ανερχόμενο συνασπισμό... more Ανάλυση της εξελισόμενης σύγκρουσης ανάμεσα στο δυτικό ιμπεριαλισμό και τον ανερχόμενο συνασπισμό των BRICS, η προσπάθεια για την ανάπτυξη ενός πολυπολικού κόσμου, και η αναγκαιότητα μιας ανεξάρτητης διεθνικής και ταξικής στρατηγικής προς τον κομμουνισμό.
This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recen... more This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recent decades, as well as the limitations of the existing literature concerning this development. An alternative (Marxist) theoretical framework is then developed for the explication of the development of commodified tourism, the role of ecological and cultural (value) appropriation in the determination of capitalist profitability, and its developmental implications. As argued, this value and resource appropriation and the exploitation/appropriation dialectic have adverse socioeconomic and ecological implications, while leading to the rapid growth of tourism against other sectors. On the other hand, the cultural homogenization and ecological degradation brought about especially by mass tourism imply a self-limiting development of tourism itself. Concluding that the current mode of tourism development is ecologically and socially unsustainable, we end with a broad outline of a different persp...
This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recen... more This article highlights the main characteristics of the rapid development of tourism during recent decades, as well as the limitations of the existing literature concerning this development. An alternative (Marxist) theoretical framework is then developed for the explication of the development of commodified tourism, the role of ecological and cultural (value) appropriation in the determination of capitalist profitability, and its developmental implications. As argued, this value and resource appropriation and the exploitation/appropriation dialectic have adverse socioeconomic and ecological implications, while leading to the rapid growth of tourism against other sectors. On the other hand, the cultural homogenization and ecological degradation brought about especially by mass tourism imply a self-limiting development of tourism itself. Concluding that the current mode of tourism development is ecologically and socially unsustainable, we end with a broad outline of a different perspective of decommodified tourism within a post-capitalist development.
The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the l... more The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the last few years, has given rise to a variety of interpretations and strategies to face this crisis. Some researchers have suggested that the state is the single most effective agent capable of mobilizing the amount of resources and the policies required to overcome a crisis of such a broad scope and devastating impact. This paper analyzes the causes of the multifaceted and deepening socio-ecological crisis to show that the root cause behind this crisis is the capitalist mode of production itself. Subsequently, I interrogate those approaches proposing the state as a strategic mechanism to combat and overcome the crisis. It is outlined that the class-based (non-neutral) character of the state will tend to reproduce the prevailing capitalist relations of production, namely the basic conditions for the generation and exacerbation of this crisis. As is finally suggested, it is only with a revolutionary transformation of society that the working social majority will be able to radically undo the fundamental causes of the crisis and create the conditions for a peaceful and sustainable development on a planetary level.
ABSTRACT Under current circumstances, the lasting and exacerbated crisis of world capitalism, its... more ABSTRACT Under current circumstances, the lasting and exacerbated crisis of world capitalism, its far-reaching transformations, and intensified socio-political and geopolitical conflicts lead to highly uncertain conditions and an increasing world disorder. After some methodological remarks and a brief analysis of the recent developments of world capitalism, this article more specifically investigates the capital–state relations, and critically considers competing explanations (including imperialism, globalization, empire, transnational and totalitarian capitalism) of the currently evolving world (dis-)order, as well as the urgent search for new forms of global governance. Based on this analysis, an attempt is made to draw some conclusions concerning social movements and struggles for social change.
Scientific Regester of the University of Macedonia, 1996
While the "terms of trade" are shown to be an inadequate indicator of the distribution of the gai... more While the "terms of trade" are shown to be an inadequate indicator of the distribution of the gains from trade and the international division of labor, a Marxist investigation of transfers of value, which are considered as different forms of unequal exchange in its broadest sense, is proposed as an alternative and more pertinent way of addressing international distributional issues.
Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 2022
This article starts with a brief exploration of the multiple crises currently facing global capit... more This article starts with a brief exploration of the multiple crises currently facing global capitalism, encompassing over-accumulation crisis, an exacerbated environmental and ecological crisis, the evolving epidemiological crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and a dramatic cultural and ideological crisis. This manifold crisis is considered as a specific “capitalism pandemic.” The most important implications of this generalized crisis are subsequently analyzed, focusing in particular on globalization and its ecological implications associated more specifically with the COVID-19 pandemic. This general crisis raises the need of an imperative transformation beyond capitalism and towards socialism/communism. Finally, we briefly outline the main characteristics of communism as a specific form of social organization, and analyze the main aspects of a prolonged transformation period between capitalism and communism.
While public policy is usually associated with the creation of all those conditions promoting soc... more While public policy is usually associated with the creation of all those conditions promoting social welfare (the well-being of the great social majority), there are important reasons currently leading to a compromise of public policies and a cooptation of the content itself of a “public sector” and “public policy”. These include the capitalist control of the state, the conjunctural conditions of capitalist accumulation, the transnationalization of production and capital, and the shifting frontiers of commodity production determined by factors such as technological innovations, the class struggle balances, and the ideological hegemony of neo-liberalism. Instead of an abstractive reflection on the public/private conflict, we use some particular cases (education and knowledge, mass media, and tourism) to demonstrate the increasing tension between capitalist development and the really public interest. In spite of the currently drastic shrinkage and perversion of the public sector (poli...
ABSTRACT This paper presents a critique of mainstream growth ideology, as well as of a variety of... more ABSTRACT This paper presents a critique of mainstream growth ideology, as well as of a variety of neo-Malthusian or liberal approaches considering economic growth as an ideology, and “growth economies” as the main culprit of ecological crisis, while disconnecting growth from the prevailing capitalist mode of production. To tackle ecological crisis, they suggest economic de-growth or a steady-state economy, while often projecting the negative impact of economic growth to different forms of production. On the contrary, this paper considers economic growth as an inherent necessity of the capitalist mode of production and explores the socio-ecological conditions of economic growth and capitalist accumulation. With a brief reference to Greece, it is demonstrated that even a protracted recession cannot reverse the trend of environmental degradation and socio-ecological crisis. As argued, overcoming the current crisis requires overcoming not only economic growth, but capitalism itself.
This important collective volume is divided into four parts and includes, apart from the editors’... more This important collective volume is divided into four parts and includes, apart from the editors’ introduction, 17 chapters contributed mostly by young Marxist scholars from around the world. The aim of the volume is ‘to provide empirical validity to the hypothesis that the cause of recurring and regular economic crises or slumps ... can be found in Marx’s law of the tendential fall in the rate of profit’ (p. vii), a law considered by Marx himself as ‘the most important law in political economy’. As the editors explain,
The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the l... more The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the last few years, has given rise to a variety of interpretations and strategies to face this crisis. Several researchers and activists, including some left-wing ones, have suggested that the state is the single most effective agent capable of mobilizing the amount of resources and the policies required to overcome a crisis of such a broad scope and devastating impact. This paper starts with an analysis of the causes of the multifaceted and deepening socio-ecological crisis to show that the root cause behind this crisis is the capitalist mode of production itself. Subsequently, I interrogate those approaches proposing the state as a strategic mechanism to combat and overcome the crisis. It is outlined that the class-based (non-neutral) character of the state, as a powerful mechanism of class domination and exploitation, will tend to reproduce the prevailing capitalist relations of production, namely the basic conditions for the generation and exacerbation of this crisis. As is finally suggested, it is only with a revolutionary transformation of society that the working social majority will be able to radically undo the fundamental causes of the crisis and create the conditions for a peaceful and sustainable development on a planetary level.
Starting with an analysis of the dynamics of present-day capitalism and of the immanent transform... more Starting with an analysis of the dynamics of present-day capitalism and of the immanent transformations flowing from its internal contradictions, we argue that an overcoming of the destructive implications of the dominant neoliberal capitalism can be ensured only by transcending capitalism itself towards communism. Based on past experience and the relevant literature, and in an attempt to draw some lessons for an effective revolutionary and communistoriented transformation, we focus on the role and significance of some crucial aspects of this transformation, including technological change, the state, as well as social and political organization. Finally, an outline of a transnational and ecological strategy is presented as a contribution to a successful and sustainable transition to communism.
This is a book review of "Facing Catastrophe: Food, Politics, and Ecological Crisis", by Carl Bog... more This is a book review of "Facing Catastrophe: Food, Politics, and Ecological Crisis", by Carl Boggs
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