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Definitions of Capital

Symbolic representation of power

"The secret to understanding accumulation, this book argues, lies not in the narrow confines of production and consumption, but in the broader processes and institutions of power. Capital, we claim, is neither a material object nor a social relationship embedded in material entities. It is not ‘augmented’ by power. It is, in itself, a symbolic representation of power."1

"Capital, this book argues, is not a productive economic entity; it is a broad power institution."2

Social relation

"Capital is a social relationship for which the politics of cementing its class rule is a matter of primacy. It is neither the development in the productive forces nor the number of unemployed that define whether this or that country is a better modern capitalist or antiquated undemocratic capitalist."3

Circulation

"M– C– M′ is in fact therefore the general formula for capital, in the form in which it appears directly in the sphere of circulation."4

  1. Nitzan, Jonathan; Bichler, Shimshon. Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder (RIPE Series in Global Political Economy Book 16) (p. 7). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. ↩

  2. Nitzan, Jonathan; Bichler, Shimshon. Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder (RIPE Series in Global Political Economy Book 16) (p. 33). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. ↩

  3. Kadri, Ali. The Accumulation of Waste: A Political Economy of Systemic Destruction. 2023 ↩

  4. Marx, Karl. Capital: Volume I (Das Kapital series Book 1) (p. 257). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. ↩