Capital Accumulation and Capital-Labor Relations: A Critique of the Social Structure of Accumulation Theory

Abstract

The social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory seeks to bridge the gap between highly abstract Marxian categories and concrete history in the analysis of institutional structures of capitalist society. More specifically, the theory focuses on the temporal transformation and national specificity of capital–labor relations. However, SSA theory cannot adequately explain why these relations take specific forms in time and space. In general, the theory fails to reconcile the concrete and the abstract, falling back on unmediated historical explanations. These explanatory limitations derive from an empiricist methodology, which can be examined through the lens of Juan Iñigo Carrera's development of Marxian theory. Iñigo Carrera additionally offers an alternative approach to the historical transformation of capital–labor relations and their national specificities. This explanation derives from Marx's analysis of the transformation of the materiality of the capitalist labor process, and explains concrete phenomena through the further development of abstract categories.