Forgetting that systemically there are different paths of economic development, much discussion in the social sciences has nevertheless concluded that as all forms of development are politically suspect – categorizing them as either having failed, or not being environmentally feasible – such a process is no longer viable anywhere. In a large part, this kind of negative assessment can be traced to two causes: first, the role of industrialization in generating climate change; and second, the antagonism expressed by postmodern theory towards what it terms foundational Eurocentric approaches that privilege unwarranted economic growth. Among the condemned development paradigms is Marxism, dismissed for its emphasis on production, a result of planning being associated by many as much with capitalism as with socialism. Similarly untoward is an additional conflation, licensing the widespread misrepresentation of culture wars as being waged by Marxism, instead of against it.
Saying that Marxist theory based on class is no longer a valid method of thinking about development quickly moves onto the assertion by postmodernism that it never was. An entirely predictable effect of this epistemological shift is the creation of a space in which the main alternative mobilizing discourse – non-class identity politics – comes to the fore and thrives in academic circles. Not the least problematic result of the wholesale annexation of development issues by postmodernism is the privileging of national/ethnic discourse, both for and against, which feeds into how the industrial reserve army of labour is perceived, a central determinant of the rise and consolidation in metropolitan capitalist nations of populism. These processes have been consecrated as academic fashion and reinforced by its form of institutional hierarchy, a locus where an entirely predictable outcome of delegitimizing Marxist development theory based on class has facilitated the broader critique by political economy of class being replaced by the postmodern celebration of culture.
Special thanks are due to the following people. To Professor David Fasenfest, the Series Editor, for encouragement; to Judy Pereira of Brill Publishers, who guided the book through production; and to my daughter Anna Luisa Brass, who provided the drawings for the front cover and those within the book itself.* She drew the cover for seven of my previous books – New Farmers’ Movements in India (1995), Labour Regime Change in the Twenty-First Century
A number of chapters draw on materials which have appeared previously in different journals. Others have not been published before, and appear here in print for the first time. Like all my previous monographs, this one is dedicated to two sets of kin. To my family: Amanda, and Anna, Ned and Miles. Also, to the memory of my parents: my father, Denis Brass (1913–2006), and my mother, Gloria Brass (1916–2012).
Richmond-upon-Thames
May, 2024
More artwork by Anna can be found in her forthcoming book Eyes are holes in your head (2024).