The talk will revisit the paradoxes of non-capitalist economics in its historical as well as futurological context. Many researchers have claimed — with surprise — that the socialist non-libidinal political economy was an enigma. If in capitalist society there is an abundance of commodities and an insufficiency of means for some layers of society to access them, in socialism, conversely, even minimum wage exceeds the supply of goods available for access: There is money, but there is very little to buy.

Some economists say that it was an error of planning; others insist that the essence of any economics should be to dispense with surplus value in production and market.

If prices are not formed at the intersection of the supply and demand curve, i.e. the price is underpriced, there is scarcity. Such logic of basic need was often criticized as one of the reasons for the collapse of historical socialism.

However, during the pandemic, discussions about the necessity of slowing down, de-growth, basic needs, or even exit from capitalist over-production — towards the post-capitalist condition — emerged again. As Evald Ilyenkov, Bernard Stiegler, and Boris Groys showed in their analysis of Marx’s political economy, abolition of surplus value would not only transform production and sociality but can even change the approach to material objects, endowing them with a noumenal (conceptual) dimension. Our question therefore is: What are the differences and affinities between contemporary theories of post-capitalism—vectoralism, platform capitalism, rentierism—and socialist ones in their treatment of surplus value?

*Image: Bus shelter in Taraz, Kazakhstan. From the project Soviet Bus Stops by Christopher Herwig.

Keti Chukhrov is a ScD in philosophy and a Tage Danielsson guest professor at the Linkoping University. In 2022-2023 she was a guest professor at the University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe. Until November 2022 she worked as a professor at the School of Philosophy and Сultural Studies at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In 2017-2019 she was a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow at Wolverhampton University (UK). She has authored numerous texts on art theory and philosophy. Her latest book Practicing the Good: Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism (University of Minnesota Press/e-flux, 2020) deals with the impact of socialist political economy on the epistemes of historical socialism. Her books include To Be — To Perform: “Theater” in the Philosophic Critique of Art (European Un-ty, 2011), Pound &£ (Logos, 1999), and a volume of dramatic writing: Merely Humans (2010). Her research interests and publications deal with the philosophy of performativity, the comparative epistemologies of capitalist and non-capitalist societies, and art as the institute of global contemporaneity. She authored the film plays Afghan-Kuzminki (2013), Love-machines (2013), Communion (2016), and Undead (2022), featured at numerous venues.

For more information, contact [email protected].

Accessibility

• Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
• For elevator access, please RSVP to [email protected]. The building has a freight elevator that leads into the e-flux office space. The entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.
• e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the event space and this bathroom.

Time: 7:00 pm EST

Free!

Registration