Books by Martijn Konings
The most real thing is money, but money is nothing more than a form of debt, which is to say a co... more The most real thing is money, but money is nothing more than a form of debt, which is to say a commitment to pay money at some time in the future.
Los Angeles Review of Books, 2020
The capitalist market, progressives bemoan, is a cold monster: it disrupts social bonds, erodes e... more The capitalist market, progressives bemoan, is a cold monster: it disrupts social bonds, erodes emotional attachments, and imposes an abstract utilitarian rationality. But what if such hallowed critiques are completely misleading? This book argues that the production of new sources of faith and enchantment is crucial to the dynamics of the capitalist economy. Distinctively secular patterns of attraction and attachment give modern institutions a binding force that was not available to more traditional forms of rule. Elaborating his alternative approach through an engagement with the semiotics of money and the genealogy of economy, Martijn Konings uncovers capitalism's emotional and theological content in order to understand the paradoxical sources of cohesion and legitimacy that it commands. In developing this perspective, he draws on pragmatist thought to rework and revitalize the Marxist critique of capitalism.
Edited by Martijn Konings
University of Toronto Press, 2013
Papers by Martijn Konings
Boston Review, 2022
This article spotlights the absurdity of plans to rein in inflation by bringing down wages even a... more This article spotlights the absurdity of plans to rein in inflation by bringing down wages even as it is widely acknowledged that wage increases do not drive inflation. It explains this situation by examining the enduring hold that neoliberal ideas have on the imagination of policymakers and the central role that asset inflation and capital gains play in that mindset.
IPPR Progressive Review, 2021
Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 2014
Journal of Australian Political Economy, 2021
Enviroment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2019
What becomes of class when residential property prices in major cities around the world accrue mo... more What becomes of class when residential property prices in major cities around the world accrue more income in a year than the average wage worker? This paper investigates the dynamic of combined wage disinflation and asset price inflation as a key to understanding the growth of inequality in recent decades. Taking the city of Sydney, Australia, as exemplary of a dynamic that has unfolded across the Anglo-American economies, it explains how residential property was constructed as a financial asset and how government policies helped to generate the phenomenal house price inflation and unequal capital gains of recent years. Proceeding in close conversation with Thomas Piketty's work on inequality and recent sociological contributions to the question of class, we argue that employment and wage-based taxonomies of class are no longer adequate for understanding a process of stratification in which capital gains, capital income and intergenera-tional transfers are preeminent. We conclude the paper by outlining a new asset-based class taxonomy which we intend to specify further in subsequent work.
Finance and Society, 2018
This rejoinder takes up some of the points that have been raised by the reviews of Capital and Ti... more This rejoinder takes up some of the points that have been raised by the reviews of Capital and Time in this forum. It engages the question of how political economy should position itself vis-à-vis concerns about the dangers of essentialism and teleological explanation. It argues that a proper theorization of the logic of ‘leverage’ is key to the development of a political economy that appropriates the insights of post-foundational theory but is still able to account for the reality of power and inequality.
Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory
Although cultural economy scholarship has highlighted the inherently speculative character of eco... more Although cultural economy scholarship has highlighted the inherently speculative character of economic action and argued that regulation is often imbricated with (rather than independent from) the speculative logics of economic life, it has stopped short of pursuing the implications for the problematics that have traditionally occupied political economists. To pursue such an analysis, this paper suggests a reframing of the theme of performativity in terms of Luhmann’s understanding of self-reference, arguing that this provides a useful window on the connection between speculation and governance. It then develops these insights by reconsidering Minsky’s work, arguing that in terms of his postfoundationalist sensibilities he may be closer to being a ‘cultural economist’ than a ‘political economist’ and that this deeply shaped his understanding of financial authority and central banking. The paper also argues that, by connecting these insights to Hayek’s critique of rational constructivism, we may get a clearer perspective on the specifically ‘neoliberal’ character of contemporary finance and its governance. In this way, it develops a perspective on political economy questions of public authority and statehood that is informed by the concerns of cultural economy.
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Books by Martijn Konings
Edited by Martijn Konings
Papers by Martijn Konings