A Port in Global Capitalism

Through a study of the port district of Rio de Janeiro and its history, from its emergence as a major slave market to its modern-day incarnation as a hub of tourism, real estate and financial speculation, this book examines the different dimensions of the manner in which capitalism expands its global process of accumulation to incorporate spaces not yet integrated into chains of value production. As such, it sheds new light on the use of explicit non-economic violence on the part of capitalist expansion, in the form of colonial or imperial policies, plundering or legal forms of expropriation. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, historians, economists, legal scholars and political theorists with interests in capitalism and inequalities.

Sérgio Costa is Professor of Sociology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Trained in Economics and Sociology in Brazil and Germany, his main research fields are social inequality, conviviality and difference and postcolonial theories. Guilherme Leite Gonçalves is Professor of Sociology of Law at the Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil. He is interested in social theory, particularly in issues of law, social control and inequalities.

Introduction 1. From Primitive Accumulation to Entangled Accumulation: Developments in the Marxist Theory of Capitalist Expansion 2. Port, Capital and the Capital City 3. Capitalism and Slavery in the Port of Rio de Janeiro 4. From the First Attempts at Industrialisation to Financialisation: 'Little Africa' vs Porto Maravilha 5. Crisis Anchored at the Port 6. Conclusions Bibliography