**Apologies for cross-posting**
Call for Papers: 2012 AAG Annual Meeting – New York, February 24-28, 2012
Session Title: New Perspectives on Primitive Accumulation
Organizers:
Elvin E. Delgado – Syracuse University
Keith Lindner – Syracuse University
Session Description:
Marx’s notion of ‘primitive accumulation’ – that is, “the historical
process of divorcing the producer from the means of production” ([1867]
1967: 714) – has been a central concern to theoretical discussions about
the exploitative nature of capitalism among geographers. Since David
Harvey’s elaboration and extension of primitive accumulation as
“accumulation by dispossession” (Harvey 2003), geographers and others
have returned to Marx’s theorizations of primitive accumulation to query
the ways in which such processes operate in new ways and contexts.
Several scholars, in particular, have argued that primitive accumulation
is less the original appropriation that initiates capitalist social
relations by displacing previous economic formations, and instead
operates in continuous and ongoing fashion as part of the normal
functioning of capitalist regimes of accumulation (De Angelis 2001;
Glassman 2006; Perelman 2007; Roberts 2008; Bonefield 2011; Mezzadra
2011). This session seeks to take stock of and extend such reworkings of
primitive accumulation. How does this work help us in the contexts of
our own empirical and theoretical work? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of these perspectives? What new directions might we take the
concept of primitive accumulation? How has primitive accumulation been
changing in the present historical moment, and what is its relationship
with processes of proletarianization, privatization, neoliberalism,
dispossession, or enclosure? Contributors may explicitly engage with a
recent theorization of primitive accumulation (or a related concept such
as accumulation by dispossession), or offer a new perspective of their
own. We are especially interested in insights from feminist,
postcolonial, poststructural and other critical perspectives and how
they can be brought to bear on discussions of primitive accumulation. We
invite papers that advance our empirical and theoretical understanding
of the multiple dimensions through which primitive accumulation takes
place and the specific political, economic, social and environmental
consequences associated with it. Historical and contemporary studies
within or across capitalist and non-capitalist contexts are equally
welcome. Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:
• The political, economic, social, and/or environmental implications of primitive accumulation
• Critical theorizations of primitive accumulation and capitalism
• The spatial and/or temporal dynamics of primitive accumulation
• Feminist, postcolonial, poststructural, post- or neo-marxist, or other approaches to primitive accumulation
• Social movement struggles against primitive accumulation and social, economic and/or environmental justice
• Race, ethnicity, gender, and/or sexuality and primitive accumulation
• Primitive accumulation and neoliberalism, accumulation by dispossession, enclosure, uneven development, or other processes
• Primitive accumulation as governmentality or environmentality
• Primitive accumulation and the common(s)
• The role of the state in primitive accumulation
• The relevance or importance of primitive accumulation for specific topics or areas of inquiry within geography
Please email abstracts of 250 words or less by Wednesday, September 21st to Elvin E. Delgado ([log in to unmask]) and Keith Lindner ([log in to unmask]).
References:
Bonefield, W. (2011) Primitive Accumulation and Capitalist Accumulation:
Notes on Social Constitution and Expropriation. Science and Society 75
(3):379-399.
Glassman, G. (2006) Primitive accumulation, accumulation by
dispossession, accumulation by ‘extra-economic’ means. Progress in Human
Geography 30(5): 608-625.
Harvey, D. (2003) The New Imperialism. Oxford University Press.
Mezzadra, S. (2011) The Topicality of Prehistory: A New Reading of
Marx's Analysis of "So-called Primitive Accumulation". Rethinking
Marxism 23 (3):302-321.
Perelman, M. (2007) Primitive accumulation from feudalism to neoliberalism. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. 18(2): 44-61.
Roberts, A. (2008) Privatizing Social Reproduction: The Primitive
Accumulation of Water in an Era of Neoliberalism. Antipode 40
(4):535-560.