The Idea of Marx in Financial Times: A Dialectical Reading of Crisis and Recovery

30 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2011 Last revised: 26 Jul 2011

See all articles by Christian De Cock

Christian De Cock

University of Essex

Sheena Vachhani

John Murray

The University of Sydney

Christina Volkmann

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: July 25, 2011

Abstract

We introduce the ‘Idea of Marx’ to put into question events and discourses that emerged during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and examine how these coalesced into a particular economic imaginary of ‘recovery’. The ‘engine’ which will allow us to move in the ‘idea of Marx’ goes by the name of the dialectic. In developing the notion of the dialectic we rely heavily on the work of Fredric Jameson and as such this paper can be seen as an attempt to put his theoretical ideas to work. We believe that a dialectical reading of financial press coverage has the potential to challenge the economic imaginary of ‘recovery’, thus keeping the way open for the coming of something (radically) different. In order to put the dialectic into motion we offer four initial wayward theses: 1. There has been no ‘Crisis of Capitalism’ 2. We must change the valence of the GFC from negative to positive 3. The relationship between finance capitalism and ‘free markets’ is deeply problematic 4. We must resist the regulation discourse

Keywords: Jameson, Global Financial Crisis, Cultural Political Economy,Finance Capitalism, Marx, Dialectic

JEL Classification: B14, G10, P10

Suggested Citation

De Cock, Christian and Vachhani, Sheena J and Murray, John and Volkmann, Christina, The Idea of Marx in Financial Times: A Dialectical Reading of Crisis and Recovery (July 25, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1765811 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1765811

Christian De Cock (Contact Author)

University of Essex ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester, CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/staff/profile.aspx?ID=1864

John Murray

The University of Sydney ( email )

University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia

Christina Volkmann

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No contact information is available for Sheena J Vachhani

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