Archaeologists understand that artifacts can be studied from many different perspectives. Among such analytical possibilities, viewing artifacts as commodities—objects produced for exchange within concrete social contexts—provides an excellent way for historical archaeologists to conceptualize the important roles material objects play in capitalist societies. This perspective accepts that artifacts have both economic and social lives. Within the historic period, slave plantations provide an excellent research universe in which to evaluate the applicability of the artifacts-as-commodities approach.

An introduction to post-Keynesian and Marxian theories of value and price

Beneath the material surface of things: Commodities, artifacts, and slave plantations

Marx's Theory of Price and its Modern Rivals provides an original look at how Marx understood the role of money, extending his theory to consider how prices move over the course of business cycles. Key modern theories of price are also analysed; Neoclassical, Post Keynesian and Sraffian theories are contrasted with Marxian thought.

Marx's theory of price and its modern rivals

Summary Following open door policy, China is allowing a major and valuable national resource, namely land, to be privatized in the market. Land has not been allocated according to the market since the Communist party took power in 1949. Without extensive market activities it has become imperative for both central and local government to devise guidelines when selling land to developers who have found great potential in this market. After initial pilot studies in some cities, a benchmark pricing model was finally devised to provide guideline land prices. In theory, this model has the role of leading the existing land allocation system into a price mechanism similar to a market economy. However, the legacy of the socialist ideology concerning the assessment of value exerts a strong effect on the benchmark pricing model which makes the behaviour of the benchmark prices inconsistent with market prices. An examination of the benchmark pricing of land in various Chinese cities has revealed that China is still f...

Benchmark pricing behaviour of land in China's reforms

:Inspired by Frederic (“Fred”) S Lee’s theoretical contribution to institutional-heterodox economics, I make the case that the neoclassical price mechanism is not only flawed, but also irrelevant for the study of actual coordination mechanisms, hence the price mechanism — as a theory as well as a way of thinking — should be discarded While this position was addressed by early institutionalists, starting with Thorstein Veblen, later institutionalists have not completely rejected the price mechanism The sympathy for the price mechanism has prevented institutionalists (and other heterodox economists) from fully developing an alternative theoretical framework concerning how actual economic activities are organized I, therefore, provide an institutionalist-heterodox framework of the provisioning process focusing on business enterprise activities This framework shows how institutional economics becomes more refined and useful when it is married to other traditions in heterodox economics, in particu

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What If There Are No Conventional Price Mechanisms

The central problem in capitalism today is not one of scarce resources clashing against innate, insatiable wants. Rather, the modern problem of monopoly capitalism is one of abundance of production clashing against scarcity of consumers. Indeed, sustaining growth while fighting against excess capacity proves to be the biggest battle in business today, fought by the capitalist power structure with the tools of neoliberalism and globalization. The economic surplus, roughly sketched, represents that gap between productive resources and consumption, and thus represents the abundance that is possible given current technology. The argument set forth is that the economic surplus remains a powerful tool in describing economic relationships and social justice issues within the context of the Great Capitalist Restoration, but more importantly, that the economic surplus represents a tool for social change. The potential for socially just amelioration and change within post-neoliberal governance is explored with explicit reference to the qualitative and instrumental framework proposed by Ron Stanfield in his somewhat overlooked but incredibly important piece, “The Fund for Social Change” (1992).

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An introduction to post-Keynesian and Marxian theories of value and price

Citations

Beneath the material surface of things: Commodities, artifacts, and slave plantations

Marx's theory of price and its modern rivals

Benchmark pricing behaviour of land in China's reforms

What If There Are No Conventional Price Mechanisms

The Economic Surplus as a Fund for Social Change and Postneoliberal Governance

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