Networks Of Capital

In The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System, Immanuel Wallerstein echoes Marx’s ideas on capital to explain world history and, in particular, its economic dimensions. For Wallerstein, world history is comprised of unequal economic exchanges between the core countries and the peripheral ones, which together comprise a capitalist “world system.” Answer the following questions as you move through the reading.

Much ink has been spilled over the effects of digital information and communication technologies on social life. Some of the most sophisticated work comes from Manuel Castells, who introduces us to his ideas on the “network society” in this essay. As you read it, pay close attention to how Castells takes the concept of networks and moves it beyond technology, and then answer the following questions.

Perhaps no piece of social theory is as well known (and, in some circles, notorious) as Marx and Engels’s Manifesto of the Communist Party. As you read the excerpt, ponder what the time must have been like in places like London and Paris when Marx and Engels were writing their call to action, and then respond to the following questions.

In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels outline their theory of historical materialism, or the idea that social change happens through disruptions in the mode of production. In one of their most eloquent passages, Marx and Engels argue that the ruling ideas of any period have always been the ideas of the ruling class. Keep this in mind as you answer the following questions about the reading.

Marx contemplates the issue of human nature in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. Like Durkheim, Marx was interested in the effects of the economy on the human condition, although his take was a bit different. Answer the following questions after completing the reading.

In Distinction, Bourdieu reveals how social class determines individual tastes in things like art, food, and music. And, as he notes in the introduction to the book, taste is more than an outcome of class—it also does its own sort of classifying. Although the prose is dense in spots, many of Bourdieu’s observations of French culture in the 1960s can be applied to our own. Answer the following questions after completing the reading.

Capital is Marx’s three-volume tour de force in which he critiques capitalism and its dependence on the exploitation of labor. Although many have debunked Marx’s labor theory of value, his thoughts on commodities, exploitation, and value continue to inspire scholars of the modern economy. Answer the following questions after completing the reading.