Unthinking Capital: Conceptual and Terminological Landmarks

Abstract

In this article I take issues with some Eurocentric limits of the two contradictions of capital: capital/labour and capital/nature. These limits are exposed by elaborating on two theoretical insights from researches in critical race studies and indigenous political ecologies: respectively thingification and uncommon. These insights produce a tension between colonialism and capitalism, which calls for a post-Eurocentric process of concept formation. This reconceptualization of capital is pursued through the notion of muri, which the Japanese thinker Uno Kōzō deployed to designate a bold non-western pathway to reading Capital. The article elaborates and formulates three conceptual and terminological landmarks to unthinking capital for a global social theory.