Capitalist society is, as Fernand Braudel stresses, “an accumulation of power” (Braudel 1982, 22). It should better be said that capitalism is a system, the totality of the accumulation of power, a “'system’ extending over the whole of society” (Braudel 1982, 239). Braudel does, however, not give a clear definition of capitalism and sees no special role of capital and class in contrast to other forms of power in capitalism.
David Harvey’s Understanding of Capitalism
My understanding of capitalism resonates with the one by David Harvey. Harvey defines capitalism as a capitalist society, namely as
any social formation in which processes of capital circulation and accumulation are hegemonic and dominant in providing and shaping the material, social and intellectual bases for social life. Capitalism is rife with innumerable contradictions […] racialisation and gender discriminations have been around for a very long time and there is no question that the history of capitalism is an intensely racialised and gendered history. […] although they are omnipresent within capitalism they are not specific to the form of circulation and accumulation that constitutes the economic engine of capitalism. This in no way implies that they have no impact on capital accumulation or that capital accumulation does not equally affect (“infect” might be a better word) or make active use of them. Capitalism clearly has in various times and places pushed racialisation, for example, to extremes (including the horrors of genocide and holocausts). Contemporary capitalism plainly feeds off gender discriminations and violence as well as upon the frequent dehumanisation of people of colour. The intersections and interactions between racialisation and capital accumulation are both highly visible and powerfully present. (Harvey 2014, 7–8)
Chapter One | Introduction: What is Digital Capitalism?
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What is Capitalism?