Le Capital

Over the past few years, Marx’s Capital has received renewed academic and popular attention. This volume is dedicated to the history of the making, the theoretical evaluation, and the analysis of the dissemination and reception of an almost unknown version of Capital: the French translation, published between 1872 and 1875, to which Marx participated directly. In revising this version, Marx decided to introduce some additions and modifications, not hesitating to describe in the postscript Le Capital as ‘a scientific value independent of the original’. To mark the 150th anniversary of the French translation of Capital (1872-2022), 15 authors have helped to shed light on its history and main features, as well as analysing its later fortunes in France and in the rest of the world. They also provide a more exhaustive account of the ideas of the "late" Marx. The book also includes a previously unpublished selection of 31 letters from correspondence of Karl Marx, Maurice Lachâtre, Just Vernouillet and Friedrich Engels related to the making of Le Capital. 10 of these letters by Marx were only recently rediscovered and are translated here for the first time in English. This book is an indispensable source for academic communities who are increasingly interested in rediscovering Marx beyond 20th century Marxism. Moreover, it will be of appeal to graduate students, as well as established scholars, interested in French socialism and the history of the labour movement.

L’Afrique a connu une forte croissance économique au cours des 2 dernières décennies. Cependant, les indices de pauvreté chronique restent très élevés, alors que la fréquence des chocs auxquels sont confrontés les ménages pauvres s’accentue et que l’écart entre les différents groupes de revenus s’élargit, particulièrement en termes de capital humain et d’accès aux services essentiels. À travers le soutien régulier et fiable aux ménages pauvres et vulnérables et l’appui à l’investissement productif, les interventions ciblées telles que les filets sociaux ont fait la preuve de leur capacité à faire reculer la pauvreté, à renverser les inégalités croissantes et à augmenter la résilience des ménages. Suite à la crise économique mondiale, un nombre croissant de décideurs politiques africains en sont venus à considérer les filets sociaux comme des instruments clés de réduction de la pauvreté et de gestion des risques. L’élan vers la rationalisation de la dépense publique à travers l’utilisation de méthodes plus appropriées de ciblage des ménages pauvres et vulnérables s’accentue. Réduire la pauvreté et investir dans le capital humain : le nouveau rôle des filets sociaux en Afrique examine les objectifs, les caractéristiques, la performance et le financement des filets sociaux mis en oeuvre dans 22 pays d’Afrique subsaharienne et identifie les moyens qui permettront aux différents gouvernements et partenaires techniques et financiers de renforcer les systèmes de filets sociaux afin que ces derniers puissent mieux soutenir les populations pauvres et vulnérables. De façon générale, les auteurs ont constaté que les filets sociaux étaient de plus en plus populaires en Afrique et que la transformation des programmes d’aide alimentaire d’urgence en filets sociaux réguliers et prévisibles s’intensifiait, notamment sous forme de programmes de transferts monétaires ciblés et d’interventions d’argent contre travail. Certains pays africains, principalement le Kenya, le Rwanda et la Tanzanie procèdent actuellement à l’unification de leurs programmes au sein d’un système national. Grâce à la disponibilité d’analyses actualisées des filets sociaux d’Afrique, des résultats encourageants tirés des évaluations d’impact et des possibilités productives offertes par les programmes de transferts monétaires dans les pays africains, les décideurs considèrent maintenant, dans leurs échéanciers de développement, les filets sociaux comme des instruments prioritaires et efficaces de réduction de la pauvreté et de la vulnérabilité.

This book presents an examination of the publishing process of Karl Marx's Le Capital. The book touches on several understudied aspects that are crucial to contextualize the publication of Le Capital from its inception until its completion, revealing its previously understated connections with other intellectual output from Marx, as well as its enduring significance for future editions of Capital, volume I.

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

The devastation of World War II left the Yugoslavian capital of Belgrade in ruins. Communist Party leader Josip Broz Tito saw this as a golden opportunity to recreate the city through his own vision of socialism. In Designing Tito's Capital, Brigitte Le Normand analyzes the unprecedented planning process called for by the new leader, and the determination of planners to create an urban environment that would benefit all citizens. Led first by architect Nikola Dobrovic and later by Milos Somborski, planners blended the predominant school of European modernism and the socialist principles of efficient construction and space usage to produce a model for housing, green space, and working environments for the masses. A major influence was modernist Le Corbusier and his Athens Charter published in 1943, which called for the total reconstruction of European cities, transforming them into compact and verdant vertical cities unfettered by slumlords, private interests, and traffic congestion. As Yugoslavia transitioned toward self-management and market socialism, the functionalist district of New Belgrade and its modern living were lauded as the model city of socialist man. The glow of the utopian ideal would fade by the 1960s, when market socialism had raised expectations for living standards and the government was eager for inhabitants to finance their own housing. By 1972, a new master plan emerged under Aleksandar Dordevic, fashioned with the assistance of American experts. Espousing current theories about systems and rational process planning and using cutting edge computer technology, the new plan left behind the dream for a functionalist Belgrade and instead focused on managing growth trends. While the public resisted aspects of the new planning approach that seemed contrary to socialist values, it embraced the idea of a decentralized city connected by mass transit. Through extensive archival research and personal interviews with participants in the planning process, Le Normand's comprehensive study documents the evolution of 'New Belgrade' and its adoption and ultimate rejection of modernist principles, while also situating it within larger continental and global contexts of politics, economics, and urban planning.

A history of Mexico City from the Aztec empire to the present day.