MODULE 1
What is the economy? In this module, we move away from the traditional definition of an economy and discuss our conceptions of an economy.
To understand the current U.S. economic system, we learn about how “value” and “profits” are created in our economic system. We also critically explore how care work and housework fit into that system. We then learn tools that help us analyze how our economies can be organized and create visions for how we want our economies to be organized.
Learning Objectives:
- Articulate our conceptions of an economy
- Understand the source of “value” in the economy
- Explain the three “C’s” of exchange, or ways our economies can be organized
- Understand how profits are created by the exploitation of workers
- Analyze how care work and housework show up in our economy
Materials
For Groups:
For Individuals:
VIDEO LESSONS:
Takeaways
- The economy is the “processes that provide for human life” – we are the economy.
- Everything has a use value, or the concrete function it serves for us, but only things made to be bought and sold have an exchange value.
- There are three basic ways our economies can be organizied, or forms of economic exchange: communal, command and commodity.
- Surplus value, which is the souce of profit, is created by the exploitation of workers, or unpaid labor.
- Carework and housework are necessary for the social reproduction of our capitalist system, but are often unpaid, invisible, and fall onto the shoulders of women of color
Readings
Understanding Capital: Marx’s Economic Theory
Duncan Foley
Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, and Change
Bowles, Edwards, Roosevelt, & Larudee
What is Social Reproduction?
Talk by Tithi Bhattacharya
What is Social Reproduction?
Tithi Bhattacharya
A People’s Guide to Capitalism
Hadas Thier
Videos
“Breathing Life into Democracy”
Nwamaka Agbo and Francisco Pérez. Economics for Emancipation Podcast, Episode 4
“To Become Ungovernable”
Elena Letona and Gopal Dayaneni. Economics for Emancipation Podcast, Episode 3
“There’s No Such Thing as the Economy”
Kali Akuno and Penn Loh. Economics for Emancipation Podcast, Episode 2
“On Black Resilience and Being Loved”
Jessica Norwood and Nia Evans. Economics for Emancipation Podcast, Episode 1
Reading Marx’s Capital Vol 1 Lecture Series
David Harvey
Marx and Feminism
Nancy Fraser (2018)
Labor Theory of Value
Richard Wolff (2017)
What is Social Reproduction Theory?
Tithi Bhattacharya (2017)
Surplus Labor and Value
(2019)
What is Work?
Nancy Folbre
What is Marxist Economics?
Hadas Thier (2020)
We are already communists
David Graeber (2009)
