The Articulation of Modes of Production

First published in 1980, The Articulation of Modes of Production is primarily concerned with the concept of articulation of modes of production and with the analysis of a number of different social formations utilizing this concept. The emphasis is on the relationship between capitalist and other modes of production and on accounts of specific social formations which demonstrate the analytical power of the concept, but at the same time reveal a number of as yet unresolved problems. The introduction to the collection takes these problems at its starting point, and through a discussion of the theoretical literature, provides the basis for a more rigorous and complete analysis of social formations. This book will be of interest to students of economics, social policy, and history.

Edited by Harold Wolpe

Introduction 1. Summary of selected parts of Kautsky's The Agrarian Question 2. The destruction of natural economy 3. Reflections on the pertinence of a theory of the history of exchange 4. The contemporary bourgeois conception of absolute monarchy 5. From reproduction to production: a Marxist approach to economic anthropology 6. The development of capitalism in South African agriculture: class struggle in the countryside 7. The marginal pole of the economy and the marginalised labour force 8. Capitalism and cheap labour-power in South Africa: from segregation to apartheid