First published in 1985. This book is the result of a long series of meetings of the Amsterdam Work-group for Marxist Anthropology, extending over a number of years starting from 1977. It has some changes and expansions from the original Dutch version.

First published in 1985. This book is the result of a long series of meetings of the Amsterdam Work-group for Marxist Anthropology, extending over a number of years starting from 1977. It has some changes and expansions from the original Dutch version.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Original Title -- Original Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Theoretical abstraction and concrete analysis -- 2 Can there be a general theory of modes of production? -- 3 The concept of mode of production -- One Primitive communism, politics and the state -- 1 The concepts of necessary- and surplus-labour -- 2 Politics and the state -- 3 The primitive communist mode of production -- Two The ancient mode of production -- 1 The concept of the ancient mode of production -- 2 Social conflict in the ancient world -- 3 Trade and commodity production in the ancient world -- Three Slavery -- 1 The nature of slavery as an institution -- 2 Is slavery a form of political domination? -- 3 Is there a 'slave mode of production'? -- 4 The concept of the slave mode of production and the analysis of slave systems -- Four The 'Asiatic' mode of production -- 1 Questions of method -- 2 The theory of rent -- 3 Is there a mode of production which corresponds to the tax/rent couple? -- 4 The 'stasis' of the Asiatic mode of production - Asia has no history -- 5 Wittfogel and 'hydraulic' society -- Five The feudal mode of production -- 1 Feudal rent and the feudal mode of production -- 2 The concept of feudal mode of production -- 3 The relations of production and the forces of production -- 4 Variant forms of the feudal mode of production -- Six The transition from feudalism to capitalism -- 1 Balibar's conception of manufacture as a transitional mode of production -- 2 Teleological causality and material causality in the analysis of transition -- 3 The transition from feudalism to capitalism -- Conclusion -- Concepts and history -- The object of history -- Althusser's proposal for a 'science of history' -- Concepts and the concrete -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

David Harvey examines the foundational contradictions of capital, and reveals the fatal contradictions that are now inexorably leading to its end

In this exciting and challenging work, Norman Long brings together years of work and thought in development studies to provide a key text for guiding future development research and practice. Using case studies and empirical material from Africa and Latin America, Development Sociology focuses on the theoretical and methodological foundations of an actor-oriented and social constructionist form of analysis. This style of analysis is opposed to the traditional structuralist/institutional analysis which is often applied in development studies. With an accessible mix of general debate, critical literature reviews and original case study materials this work covers a variety of key development issues. Among many important topics discussed, the author looks at commoditisation, small-scale enterprise and social capital, knowledge interfaces, networks and power, globalisation and localisation as well as policy formulation and planned intervention processes. This book should be read for its desire to pursue a form of analysis that helps us to understand better (and more realistically) the kinds of development interventions and social transformations that have characterised the second half of the twentieth century and will no doubt continue to characterise future development studies.

The spread of modernity throughout the non-Western world has had transformative effects not only on governments and economies but on the lives of individuals as well. The constraints and opportunities of modernization inevitably lead to the breakdown and supplanting of older social relations and livelihoods. In this volume Andrew P. Davidson examines the Nuba Mountain region of western Sudan to show how individuals and families struggle to maintain or expand their well-being in the face of continuous uncertainty, when control of their destinies is increasingly slipping out of the comforting confines of the village.As in many third world regions, changes in agriculture and market activity have occurred in the Nuba mountains in a far more compressed tune frame than in Europe. Davidson charts the social effects of the rationalization process by concentrating on the household as a mediating structure between the individual and the larger society. In his analysis the livelihood strategies of households act as a microcosm for the unevenness of development that is characteristic of modernizing economies. Davidson offers a comparative and historical examination of economic life in three villages in order to better understand the capacities and limitations that ultimately condition what people can and cannot do. He shows how the older lineage system based on communalism, kinship, and age-based hierarchy is being displaced by new forces of social organization and individual orientation which have eroded village cohesion and left the Nuba vulnerable to the Islamic-dominated government in Khartoum and the ravages of the continuing Sudanese civil war.In its combination of empirical analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and theoretical inquiry In the Shadow of History reconceptualizes development in such a way that the dynamics of historical transformation are made clear. This study hi the classic anthropological tradition will be a valuable resource for anthropologists, economists, historians, and Africa area specialists.

Table of contents