Diagnosing Capitalism

Capitalist development has lifted some segments of the globe to considerable affluence, but too many individuals and countries have been left behind. Diagnosing Capitalism analyses capitalism from a multidisciplinary perspective, focusing on the different ways in which capitalism has developed in the Global North and the Global South. It reframes capitalism not as a neutral economic system, but as a regime of rule that organises subjectivity, institutions, and moral imagination. Featuring both theoretical and case-study chapters from highly renowned thinkers in the field of political economy, it draws on feminist, postcolonial, legal, and heterodox traditions to explore how valuation, financialisation, extractivism, and adaptive co-optation sustain global inequalities. It highlights how caste, coloniality, and welfare bureaucracies are not external to capitalism but central to its functioning. In doing so, it shows that no matter what theoretical lens we use to assess capitalism, its consequences and limitations cannot be ignored.