A long view of globalization and crisis

The crises we confront raise fundamental questions: how do we rethink our objectives? What are we assuming as 'given' that is getting in the way? I approach these questions by undertaking a 'long history' of accumulation processes and the social hierarchies, justificatory ideologies, and subjective investments they generate. Early state formation marked a turning point in potential scales of accumulation; the 'industrial revolution' and European state making marked a subsequent leap associated with modern capitalism. Accumulation throughout has involved both economic and non-economic processes and a mixture of coercion and consent. I argue that a history of these transformations illuminates issues shaping current crises: in particular, the 'givenness' (normalization) of inequalities within and between groups; belief systems that cultivate stratifications and antagonistic relations; erasure of social reproduction as the indispensable foundation of sustainability; and the idealization of 'growth' that underpins accumulation processes but is in tension with equitable and sustainable conditions.