You are hereNotes Towards a Methodology on the Problem of Surplus Populations

Notes Towards a Methodology on the Problem of Surplus Populations

"The world-wide financial crisis of the contemporary conjuncture compels us to revisit and re-assess Marx's 'law of populations peculiar to capitalist society', and to specifically re-think the significance of the concept of the surplus population. In this talk, I address the question of surplus populations on two analytical registers: first, on the level of the 'pure' principles of capitalist commodity economies; and second, on the level of capitalism's historical transformation into the stage of imperialism. As part of the second level of analysis, I specifically address the relationship between various strata of surplus populations, phases of economic recession, state power(which includes para-state forms of disciplinary and biopolitical power), and finally the looming specter of fascism."

Ken Kawashima
Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto

Friday, January 23, 2009
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
208N - Seminar Room, North House
Munk Centre For International Studies
1 Devonshire Place

Ken Kawashima's forthcoming book is entitled Contingent Commodifications: Korean Labor Power, Racism, and Capitalism in Japan, 1917-1937.

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Development Seminar Series
Co-sponsored by the Asian Institute - Markets and Modernities Series