Capitalism and Its Critiques: Colonialism, Gender, and Ecology

We live in a rapidly changing world where fundamental societal challenges are reshaping public debates. Increasingly, these discussions question the systemic structures of our economy and society. While not always explicitly stated, many of these debates touch upon critiques of capitalism, which has seen renewed attention both in public discourse and among social science scholars. This trend reflects a growing need to grapple with questions that go beyond surface-level critiques, delving into how we understand and define capitalism itself.

The tools of mainstream economics can be used to criticize the fundamentals of capitalism, but are more often used for fine-tuning it. This course gives students the tools to engage with critiques of capitalism originating outside of mainstream economics and in other parts of social science.

In economics, discussions of political economy and critiques of capitalism were once central to the discipline but have become less prominent in contemporary academic practice. This course seeks to bring these discussions back into focus, offering students the tools to critically assess and engage with critiques of capitalism. The aim is not only to understand these critiques but also to challenge them and explore if and how they can complement mainstream economic theory. By doing so, students will be better prepared in their professional lives to work with academics from other social science disciplines and apply their skills and knowledge from economics to public debates, policy advice, research, and the broader transformation of economic systems.

Capitalism and Its Critiques: Colonialism, Gender, and Ecology explores the broad, societal implications of capitalism.

In the course, we will explore three main topics—colonialism, gender, and ecology—to investigate how we can view capitalism as extending beyond the market economy, mode of production, and class relations. Furthermore, these three topics allow us to connect critiques of capitalism to major societal issues and core themes in contemporary economics, namely inequality and ecological crises and policies.

The course critically examines both the foundations of capitalism theories and key critiques, encouraging students to assess the relevance of these perspectives in understanding contemporary economic challenges.

The course is specifically aimed at economics students but takes an interdisciplinary approach. Large parts of the curriculum come from other disciplines, mainly sociology, political theory, human geography, and philosophy. Based on students' prior coursework and selected economic research related to the three topics in the course, this literature will be related to economics in student assignments and class discussions.

At its core, the course seeks to equip students with the tools to critically engage with these critiques, examine their strengths and limitations, and relate them to mainstream economic theory and research.

The course is centered on four related topics:

Foundations of Capitalist Theories
We begin by reading classic economic texts about capitalism, including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Hayek. Most critiques of capitalism, particularly those covered in this course, are rooted in Marxism, so this section provides the groundwork. A key concept from Marx, which will reoccur throughout the course, is primitive accumulation. This section also focuses on the theoretical foundations of strong advocates for capitalism, such as Hayek, providing the basis for nuanced discussions in the remaining sections.

Capitalism and Colonialism
This topic examines the connections between capitalism and colonialism beyond the colonial period. Discussions also cover in what ways capitalism and colonialism can be considered to relate to racial injustice, global inequality, and geopolitics today.

Capitalism and Gender
This topic explores Silvia Federici’s work on gender and alternative perspective on primitive accumulation, and a gendered perspective on the development of capitalism in European history during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We will discuss how capitalism can be considered to relate to gender inequality beyond just inequality in the labor market and wealth inequality considering reproductive and care work in capitalist societies. Further, it will be deeply connected to the topics around colonialism, where we will dive into the intersections of class, race, and gender.

Capitalism and Ecology
This topic briefly covers the topic of how capitalist societies, both historically and today, depend on material use and environmental degradation. We will consider David Harvey’s concept of accumulation through dispossession.

Participants will critically analyze these perspectives through seminar discussions, reading reflection assignments, and student presentations. The course emphasizes fostering a broad and nuanced understanding of capitalism and a curiosity about how other social sciences conceptualize capitalism differently than mainstream economics and what we can learn from it. The central component of the course is cultivating academic discussions grounded in theory, practicing the student's ability to formulate academic arguments, with an open space with room for a variety of different perspectives and disagreements, where we listen and learn from each other, as we dive into the critiques of capitalism and approach them critically as well.

As the course covers difficult text and has a larger reading load than most other courses offered in the economics program, students will also be introduced to different reading techniques, which they are encouraged to try out during the course. For students new to this, it will be a steep learning curve and a challenge to begin with, as we start with reading classic theoretical texts. Students have to be prepared and open to take on this challenge. In the seminar classes, we will help each other understand the texts and have a space where we can openly share when we simply do not understand something. Hopefully, students will experience improvement in their reading during the semester, making this aspect less demanding as the course evolves.