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The French Regulation Approach and its Theory of Consumption
Abstract
This study criticises Regulation’s Consumption theory. First, it pinpoints the significance of consumption for Regulation. Then, it criticises it: (a) its Value theory, by arguing that the regulationist conception of the value of labour-power and its theory of wage is theoretically and empirically unsound. (b) Aglietta’s (1979) macroeconomic model of the relations between the two departments of production (c) Regulation’s analysis of the 1929 crisis as underconsumptionist. Additionally, it is shown that RA’s Consumption theory is instrumental for its trajectory towards post-modernism and the related abandonment of class analysis.
... The mode of production is the way production and transactions are organised in a society and the mode of consumption refers to the ways goods and services are consumed (Mavroudeas, S. 2003). Throughout history a number of different modes of production as well as modes of consumption have existed (Zuindeau, 2006). ...
In this article, the development and changes in Swedish public policy relating to tourism from the 1930s to 2010 is described and interpreted from a political economy perspective. A case study, compiled from mainly secondary sources, is analyzed from a theoretical framework based on regulation theory. The purpose with this study is to increase the understanding of how the macro political economy context has influenced the policy-making in tourism in Sweden, but also to make a contribution to an area which seems to be quite neglected when it comes to research. The changes are analyzed according to the three periods denoted as pre-Fordism (mid-19 th century-1930s), Fordism (1930s-1970s) and post-Fordism (1970s to present). It is observed how the general changes between these periods regarding aspects such as regulation and deregulation, and the degree of state involvement, have affected tourism policy making. The tourism policy making has changed from being insignificant, to a high degree of state involvement including planning , control and supervision, to a situation where the market rather than government regulation is considered as state of the art.
The review article reveals the content of the concept of Food Regime, which is little-known in the Russian academic reference. The author monitored and codified the semantic dynamic of the terminological unit from its original interpretations to modern formulations based on the retrospective analysis. The rehabilitation of the academic merits of D. Puchala and R. Hopkins — authors who used the concept Food Regime for a few years before its universally recognized origin and official scientific debut, was accomplished with help of historical and comparative methods. The author implemented the method of ascension from the abstract to the concrete to demonstrating the classification of Food Regimes compiled on the basis of geopolitical interests in the sphere of international production, consumption, and distribution of foodstuffs. The characteristic features of historically formed Food Regime were described in the chronological order, as well as modern tendencies possessing reformist potential were identified. In particular, it has been established that the idea of Food Sovereignty (which is an alternative to the modern Corporate Food Regime) is the subject for acute academic disputes. The discussion between P. McMichael P. and H. Bernstein devoted to the “peasant question” — mobilization frame of the Food Sovereignty strategy was analyzed using the secondary data processing method. Due to the critical analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to follow the principles of the Food Sovereignty strategy to prevent the catastrophic prospects associated with ecosystem degradation, accelerated erosion of soils, the complete disappearance of biodiversity and corporate autoc racy successfully. The author is convinced that the idea of Food Sovereignty can ward off energetic liberalization of nature, intensive privatization of life and rapid monetization of unconditioned human reflexes.
This article critically examines the received wisdom on the value of labor power that posits the workers’ material reproduction and the class struggle as two independent factors that determine the bundle of wage-goods consumed by the working class. It shows that this reading has no solid textual basis on Marx’s writings. Furthermore, it argues that it rests on a problematic separation of the actual immanent unity between materiality and social form in the capitalist mode of production.
Political economy spans various disciplines leading to an array of approaches labeled as such. This chapter provides a very brief overview of the political economy of tourism before concentrating on regulation theory as one approach to analyzing political economy and providing an overview of regulation theory as applied to tourism. A recent increase in awareness of tourism governance offers the opportunity to re-engage with regulation theory. Regulation theory as a critical approach examines the relationships between states, institutions and society, of particular interest to regulation theory has been the shift in institutional regime towards multilevel governance. This chapter illustrates that a shift of focus from institutions as unit of analysis to governance networks requires a more socialized approach to regulation theory and political economy. The chapter concludes by highlighting consumption and discursive analysis as future areas of enquiry for the political economy of tourism.
Drawing upon the French tradition of regulation theory – most notably associated with Aglietta – the author describes the ‘forms of regulation’ that have characterized the various stages of capitalism. He argues that while the current crisis consists of a disruption of the whole structure of monopoly regulation, it is not a deathknell for capitalism itself. A way out of the crisis would involve the development of a new form of regulation, a new regime of accumulation as a given historical and central institution of capitalism.
Regulation Theory aims, on a historicist and institutionalist basis and via a middle-range methodology, to explain capitalist development. However, both its theoretical and methodological perspectives are unfit for this purpose. Middle-range methodology prioritises superficial features of reality, fails to implement dialectical abstraction and, consequently, cannot grasp neither the deeper roots not the actual course of historical evolution. Historicism cannot grasp history’s essential determinations and institutionalism autonomises improperly institutions and politics from socio-economic relations. Therefore, Regulation’s multi-factor intermediate concepts have limited explanatory power. Instead of being able to capture both the essential unity and the formal separation of socio-economic relations, they end up with an inordinate juxtaposition of economics, politics etc. The lack of a general-theoretical framework led Regulation from an initial mild structuralism to an equally mild post-structuralism and post-modernism. This journey created further problems to its already unstable theoretical structure, exacerbated its explanatory inefficiency and led to its present crisis of identity.
This paper starts with a critique of some biases in the theories of imperialism, dependancy and the international division of labour (IDL) such as holism, functionalism and the primacy of external causes. It is suggested that an analysis based on regimes of accumulation and modes of regulation might avoid these pitfalls. Such an analysis argues that a new IDL is being superimposed upon the old IDL with its characteristic divisions between centre and periphery and between manufactured goods and raw materials. The new IDL is developing along a pattern based on the levels of technology and skill within the labour process, and is leading to a dispersion of both the centre and periphery.