Value form or value relations? Since the value FORM is the commodity, and the relations those necessary to reproduce endless commodification, the distinction makes a difference. :) Kindly, Jason
There are two value-form approaches. The first is a political economic approach present in several authors associated to Capital&Class journal, like Simon Clarke and Werner Bonefeld. The second one is more philosophical and stress the dialectical distinction between forma and content. The most influential author in this second group is Chris Arthur.
One difference between the Bonefelds and the Arthurs is that the former is heavily influenced by Backhaus/Reichelt and the question of the social constitution of social forms (largely ignorered by the Arhurs).
John Milios (with co-writers) has engaged value-form theory from a kind of Althusserian perspective. The boks are fairly good.
The work of Riccardo Bellofiore and Roberto Fineschi is interesting perspective of the value-form. Otros trabajos interesantes pueden encontrar en el libro compilado por Westra y Zuege: "Value and World Economy Today". An interesting alternative perspective of value theory can be found in the text of Harry Cleaver "Readings Marxs Politically".
I know of Bellofiore, but would not have thought of him as a value form theorist, thought he was more of a circuitist?
The Bellofiore`s work can be interpreted as circuitist, but I think all the approaches to the theory of value from can be characterized from a reading "sustancialist" as circuitist or circulationist.
This text of two Argentine investigators, discuss Rubin's vision in the same direction:
- AXEL KICILLOF & GUIDO STAROSTA (2007). On Materiality and Social Form: A Political Critique of Rubin’s Circulationist Value-Form Theory. Historical Materialism
Other interesting text of the author is:
-GUIDO STAROSTA. Cognitive Commodities and the Value-Form. Science & Society; Lugar: New York; Año: 2012 vol. 76 p. 365 - 392
The critique of value-form theorists as circulationists always strike me as a red herring. The basic point in VFT (following Rubin) is the necessary interconnection between production and exchange.
Bonefeld criticizes Kicillof and Starosta in his Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy.
I can mention Luiz G. Belluzzo, who struggled similarly as Heinrich with the Sraffa-schock and recovered Isaak Rubin in the same way. Reference in portuguese: BELLUZZO, L. G. (1998) Valor e Capitalismo: Um Ensaio sobre a Economia Política. Campinas: Unicamp, IE
It is astonishing that nobody mentions Kōzō Uno. See the discussion that followed after him.
Makoto Itoh: The Basic Theory of Capitalism: The Forms and Substance
of the Capitalist Economy, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1988.
☆See its bookreview: http://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/pubs/itoh.pdf
Robert Albriton and Thomas T. Sekine (1995) A Japanese Approach to Political
Economy: Unoist Variations, New York: Macmillan.
Elena Louisa Lange (2014) Failed Abstraction – The Problem of Uno Kōzō’s Reading of Marx’s Theory of the Value Form. Historical Materialism, 22(1): 3-33.
☆Lange's paper is critical to Uno's theory of value form but provides useful refenreces.
Dear Paul Cockshott,
you are welcome. Uno passed about two years in Germany in the first half of 1920's. After returning to Japan, he started to study Marx's Capital in his own way. He did not deny dialectics, but he tried to understand Marx's theory in a logically rational way. This attitude gave his work special features. After the WW II, his theory became one of leading strands (one among three) in post- War Japanese Marxian studies. The strand was called Uno School. We may point two important features in Uno's theory. One is his theory on value forms. The other is three stage theory.
Unfortunately, Uno did not write in English. I am not sure if he has written some papers in German. Consequently, his theory remained unknown out side of Japan.
Although I am not affiliated to Uno school, Uno is one of my favorite scholars and I love to read his books and papers.
Ricardo Bellofiore (yet cited above), David Gleicher, Goert Reuten...
French "Rubin's school" (but different from I. Rubin in fact) : Jean Cartelier, Carlo Benetti, Michel De Vroey, Alain Lipietz, Michel Aglietta...
Robert Kurz - works to be found in Krisis magazine and the Exit! site. Mostly in German but a Chrome browser can give you starling (?) translations. Below are two brilliant cartoons that summarise key concepts. Ideas for the 21st century (not reheated old dishes). Enjoy!
Value and Crisis: Essays on Labour, Money and Contemporary Capitalism
Author: Alfredo Saad Filho
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