How Capitalism Began
Channel: A New Conversation
Date: 22/04/2020

This is the fifth part in a six part discussion on hegemony and populism. It takes its title from David Harvey's co-revolutionary theory from his book 'The Enigma of Capital'. The theory is that in Capital, Marx argues that for fundamental social change to be established, first piecmeal but continuous change must occur through a series of social moments. This is what Harvey calls Marx's theory of co-evolutionary change. Harvey identifies seven moments before arguing that for capitalism to transition from socialism, we must operate as a movement in terms of these moments, transcending the left's tendency to silo within each respective moment. This is his co-revolutionary theory. In this discussion, however, we touch on each moment and loosely trace the co-evolutionary change that may have occurred in the transition from feudalism to capitalism, using Ellen Meiksins Wood's 'The Origin of Capitalism' to inform our thought game.