Capitalist Power, Signification & the Qualities of Sabotage -- James McMahon
Channel: Creorder
Date: 2013-02-14

3rd Annual Forum on Capital as Power: "Capitalizing Power: The Qualities and Quantities of Accumulation"

September 28-30, 2012, York University, Toronto

24. The Spectre of Radical Creation: Capitalist Power, Social Signification and the Qualities of Strategic Sabotage

James McMahon, York University (jmcmahon@yorku.ca)

My presentation aims to explicate strategic sabotage, a concept that was created by Thorstein Veblen, and which is central to Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler's theory of capitalist power. This presentation will circle around one question: what theoretical generalizations can be made about strategic sabotage as it relates to the complex qualitative dimension of social creativity? This is an important question if the power of business over industry is expressed qualitatively as much as it is expressed quantitatively, in prices. Moreover, the social dynamics of creation, including how a community uses what is created, are somehow incorporated into capitalization. With examples from my current research on the political economy of Hollywood cinema, I will argue that power is necessary to the capitalization of creativity: business interests understand the human power of creation, even if they cannot exactly affirm its potential without the presence of sabotage. Autonomous creation is a threat to capitalist interests because the non-determinable nature of creation is incompatible with capitalization. For the purposes of calculating expectations about future earnings, business predetermines, as best as possible, the place of new creation in a field of social significations.

Conference page: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/341/