Capitalism

The conceptual delineation of “spatial compression” in critical writings of Karl Marx and David Harvey is mapped to explain how contemporary capitalist practices use “time” creatively to overcome the spatial constraints to profit-making. The insights drawn from the discussions are used to examine the rapid expansion of Amazon India, primarily achieved through its network of warehouses—a spatial construct. Thus the tangible manifestations of restructuring time and space in the present-day capitalist landscape of India are analysed.

Vol XXXIII, Nos 33–34 AUGUST 15–22, 1998

This paper seeks to explain the nature and basis of inter-country income inequality in the contemporary global capitalist economy. It characterises the current structure of the world economy as a combination of knowledge monopolies, which also become monopsonies, largely located in the headquarter economies of the global North, with producer companies largely based on commoditised knowledge in the supplier economies of the global South.

Set Adrift: Capitalist Transformations and Community Politics along Mumbai’s Shore by Gayatri Nair, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021; pp 202, `1,295 (hardbound).

The Idea of New India: Essays in Defence of Critical Thought by Pramod Kumar, Delhi: Aakar Books, 2021; pp 362, `1,495 (hardback).