Political Economy of the 21st Century – Food for thought over the holidays and for the new year

December 19th, 2016 by Pekka Kamarainen

I have already completed my duties with in my daily work, left Bremen behind for a holiday period and landed happily to my domestic Finland. Normally, when I am entering the holiday mood, I give my blog a rest and take some time off as a blogger. Likewise, I have tended to leave behind the habit to send Christmas cards (and switched to e-cards). Now, I am doing something different: I am sending via my blog season’s greetings – food for thought worth keeping over the holiday period and catching up with in the beginning of the year 2017.

All my years as an expatriate in Germany I have learned to appreciat the German radio channel Deutschlandfunk and its Sunday morning program “Essays und Diskurs”.  And during the last few weeks they have had a very special series of these with the heading ‘Political economy of the 21st century – on the actuality of Marx and “Das Kapital”‘. I know that such a heading can provoke different reactions and assumptions, what these programs might be about. To me it was inspiring to listen to some of them – contemporary researches discussing present date problems and issues of social theory – working these issues through with reflective reading on Karl Marx. They were looking at ways to set our current problems into interpretative frameworks and exploring the heritage of Marx with focused reading of “Das Kapital”.

I guess this is enough of introduction, I will give links to the six programs of this series below. And yes, the authors had written their contributions in German and presented them in German. But since my links are to the written contributions, they might be accessible to others than German-speakers as well.  For those, who want to listen to the audios, the pages give links to them as well. So, here we have these special contributions with brief introductions (in German):

RE: Das Kapital (1/6) Aktuelle Brisanz der Marxschen Kategorie

“Vor 150 Jahren erschien eines der Hauptwerke von dem deutschen Philosophen, Ökonom und Gesellschaftstheoretiker Karl Marx – “Das Kapital”. Im ersten Teil einer Deutschlandfunk-Sendereihe erläutert der Publizist Mathias Greffrath wie die Marxsche Kategorie des Mehrwerts heute noch politische Brisanz entfalten kann.” Von Mathias Greffrath

RE: Das Kapital (2/6) Das Verhältnis von Kapitalismus und Gewalt

“Im zweiten Teil der Deutschlandfunk-Sendereihe über die aktuelle Brauchbarkeit von “Das Kapital”: ein Essay des Soziologen Wolfgang Streeck über die “ursprüngliche Akkumulation” und die Gewalt im Kapitalismus.”  Von Wolfgang Streeck

Michael Quante, Professor für Philosophie, beschäftigt sich für den dritten Teil der Sendereihe “Das Kapital” mit dem ökonomischen Hauptwerk von Karl Marx. Er geht dabei auf die Suche nach den Spuren der Entfremdung im Kapitalismus, welche auch heute spürbar sind.  Von Michael Quante

RE: Das Kapital (4/6) Der Niedergang des Kapitalismus

Marx hielt den Sieg des Proletariats für unvermeidlich. Doch wie lange wird es dem Kapitalismus noch gelingen, seinen Niedergang zu verhindern? Mit dieser Frage befasst sich der Wirtschaftsjournalist Paul Mason im vierten Teil der Sendereihe “Das Kapital”. Von Paul Mason

RE: Das Kapital (5/6) Sahra Wagenknecht über das Ende des Kapitalismus

Linken-Politikerin Sahra Wagenknecht beleuchtet die historische Tendenz des Kapitalismus. Für die bekennende Marxistin ist spätestens heute die Zeit gekommen, sich vom Kapitalismus abzuwenden. Für den fünften Teil der Sendereihe hat sie sich erneut über das Monumentalwerk “Das Kapital” gebeugt.  Von Sahra Wagenknecht

RE: Das Kapital (6/6) Kooperation als Quelle des Reichtums

Der Journalist und politische Schriftsteller Robert Misik erklärte das Finanzsystem in seinem letzten Buch zum “Kaputtalismus”. Er plädiert für eine “Miteinander-Ökonomie”. Im letzten Teil der Sendereihe “RE: Das Kapital” beschäftigt er sich ausgehend von Marx mit der Kooperation als Erfolgskonzept.  Von Robert Misik

 – – –

I think this is enough for the moment. I haven’t had a chance to listen to them all  – so, I will also take my ‘lunch bags’ as food for thought over the holiday period and to the new year 2017.

More blogs to come …

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