Market versus planning? Production relations in contemporary capitalism
The concept of planning has been traditionally associated to a national state capacity to centrally allocate and distribute resources in a long-term basis. It has been particularly applied to industrial policy and used to describe the macroeconomics of a wide range of experiences, going from the former so-called socialist countries to contemporary China, but also as an instrument and framework for contributing to development in the periphery.
However, it has also been incorporated into the analysis of the relations within multinational companies and between firms in general, which in the context of the “New Division of Labor” characterized by global commodity chains, do not only rely on market transactions to conduct their operations, but involve themselves in planning relations.
Therefore, the idea of market and planning as opposed productive relationships that take place in different, autonomous and independent spheres (i.e., the economy and the state) is a constraint for understanding contemporary capitalism where power relations, far from belonging to States’ as a circumscribed and separate sphere, could rather be conceived as planning relations, that develop throughout most of capitalist institutions.
In this call we invite young scholars to submit proposals aimed at rethinking the concepts of planification, power, market relations and the state and also discussing experiences that challenge the previously discussed traditional understandings. We will particularly welcome works dealing with the basic concepts of Classical Political Economy (value, money, capital) and also on contemporary discussions such as Global Value Chains, Global Production Networks, supranational policies and innovation (for example, monopoly capital or intellectual monopoly).
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