So-called Accumulation by Dispossession

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the notion of primitive accumulation has been reemerging within studies of historical capitalism. Nonetheless, most research on contemporary dispossessions has related them to capitalist accumulation proper without sufficient theoretical care, in a way that virtually collapses the concepts of dispossession and accumulation into one another. The purpose of this paper is to suggest some theoretical distinctions to better understand how contemporary dispossessions and their variations, forms and mechanisms relate, contribute, or even do not contribute, to capitalist accumulation proper. To do so, I discuss the concept of classical primitive accumulation and its alleged continuity until today. I then propose the concept of redistributive dispossession which, unlike primitive accumulation, does not create any condition for the expansion of capital. Such conditions are created through the processes I discuss under the label of expanding dispossession, which I split into expanding capitalizing dispossession and expanding commodifying dispossession.