Institutional Change in Social Structures of Accumulation Theory: An Anti-essentialist Approach

Abstract

This paper argues for the need to recast Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA) debates regarding the relevance of contradictions other than that between capital and labor, as well as regarding the terms of the political struggle in times of SSA decay, in the light of the concepts of overdetermination and hegemony. To that extent, it introduces the notions of “necessary social peace for surplus-value extraction” and “accumulation of unsatisfied demands over the accumulation process.”