In the Tracks of Marx’s Capital

Beschreibung

“A masterly work… A passionate and intelligent application of Marxist categories.”

Guglielmo Carchedi, Retired Professor, University of Amsterdam

“This thought-provoking book clarifies many of the controversies and confusions surrounding Marx’s Capital, and considers how to measure and assess some crucial Marxist variables.”

Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

“Tonak and Savran show convincingly that Marx’s Capital remains the bedrock for understanding the laws of motion of capitalist production.”

Michael Roberts, Author of The Great Recession, The Long Depression and Marx 200

“This is living Marxism!”

Tamás Krausz, Author of Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize-Winner Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography, editor of Hungarian Marxist journal Eszmélet

“Indispensable.” 

Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS University of London, University of Johannesburg, and LUT University.

This book provides an accessible introduction to Marx’s seminal work Capital and explores some of the core ideas of Marxian political economy relevant for modern day economies.

The first section of the book gives an overview of Capital, providing a historical background and the story of its making, as well as the authors’ original thinking in the methodologies of Capital. This part also introduces readers to an important discussion of productive versus unproductive labour. The second part discusses the application of these ideas to some understudied questions of measuring profit on alienation, the rate of exploitation, including the reconstruction of input-output tables, as well as the role of the welfare state and the social wage. The third part sets forth new research in Marxian analysis in the 21st century, facing the challenges brought about by digital technology, digital labour, lean production and the long-run recessionary state of the global economy. The last part complements the first part on Marx’s theory of value by presenting original arguments regarding the Marxism/Neo-Ricardianism debate.

Sungur Savran is a graduate of Brandeis University in politics and holds a PhD in economics from Istanbul University. He has  taught as visiting scholar at universities in the United States. He is actively engaged in socialist politics.

E. Ahmet Tonak is a Research Affiliate at Smith College. He has taught economics at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and was a visiting professor at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey and UMAss Amherst.

This book provides an accessible introduction to Marx’s seminal work Capital and explores the core ideas of Marxian political economy relevant for modern day economies. The first part gives an overview of Capital based on the authors’ original thinking in the methodology of Capital. The second part discusses the application of these ideas to some understudied questions of measuring profit on alienation, the rate of exploitation, the reconstruction of input-output tables, and the role of the welfare state and social wage. The third part sets forth new research in Marxian analysis in the 21st century, facing the challenges brought about by digital labor and the deep crisis of the global economy. The last part discusses the Marxism/Neo-Ricardianism controversy.

Autor*in

Sungur Savran

Themen in »In the Tracks of Marx’s Capital«

Marxian Economics Marxist Political Economy Critique of Political Economy Neo-Ricardianism Measuring Surplus Value Measuring the Rate of Profit Economic Crisis

Stimmen zu »In the Tracks of Marx’s Capital«

“Sungur Savran and E. Ahmet Tonak’s collection of essays, In the Tracks of Marx’s Capital, present an excellent and timely contribution to our understanding of Marx’s work, especially as capitalism remains mired in depressed profitability and stagnant accumulation since the 2008 global financial crisis. … This collection of essays (many previously unpublished in English) is a vigorous defense and elaboration of Marx’s method, theory, and ability to explain the concrete history of capitalism.” (Spectre, spectrejournal.com, July 4, 2025)

“This is a masterly work of Marxist economics, a passionate and intelligent application of Marxist categories to an analysis of contemporary capitalism. It should be read and studied by all those interested in understanding the historic decline of capitalism and how to replace it with a truly humane system.” (Guglielmo Carchedi, Retired Professor, University of Amsterdam)

“This thought-provoking book opens up and clarifies many of the controversies and confusions surrounding Marx’s Capital, and considers how to measure and assess some crucial Marxist variables. In the process, it shows how many of the analytical constructs remain deeply relevant for the understanding of contemporary economic realities, particularly digital technology, lean production and flexibility, and new forms of imperialism in the early 21st century.” (Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst)

“In this timely volume, Savran and Tonak offer an erudite and wide-ranging discussion of Marxian political economy. Bringing together essays written over many decades, the authors engage with both classical and contemporary issues. The book is divided into four parts, with the first, second and fourth parts covering classical themes, and the third engaging with contemporary debates. In the first part, the authors offer an overview of Marx’s Capital, dealing specifically with the place of Grundrisse in Marx’s oeuvre, an overview of the three volumes of Capital, the specificities of Marx’s critique of political economy, the importance of the distinction between productive and unproductive labor, and the reception of Marx’s Capital in Turkey. The second part takes the readers on an insightful journey in how to operationalize key Marxian concepts that are relevant for measuring surplus value. A chapter in this part offers a novel discussion of the notion of ‘profit on alienation.’ In the third part, the authors engage with contemporary capitalism and demonstrate the relevance of the Marxian conceptual framework in understanding interesting features of capitalism in the 21st century, including digital production, changes in the labor process and managerial practices, imperialism and uneven development, and the global crisis of capitalism. The fourth and final part offers an erudite discussion of the intricacies of the neo-Ricardian critique of Marxist value theory, presenting a robust Marxian response to many debates in the labor theory of value. This book will surely become indispensable for anyone interested in the current revival of Marxian scholarship across the globe.” (Deepankar Basu, Department of Economics, University of Massacussetts, Amherst, USA; the author of “The Logic of Capital: An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory”)

“The 21st century is a crucial time for capitalism and for working people.  In this third decade, world capitalism is locked into a depression that is similar to but worse than the late 19th century depression and the Great Depression of the 1930s, heralding a rising threat of a new world war, as well as an environmental catastrophe for the planet. In this book Ahmet Tonak and Sungur Savran bring together a series of works written by them over the last 40 years that ‘track’ the development and relevance of Marx’s analysis of the capitalist mode of production to the present day. Tonak and Savran emphasise the key distinction (often confused) that Marx makes between productive and unproductive labour.  In so doing, they expose in an original way the faultlines and internal inconsistencies of Sraffian economics, the main modern ‘revision’ of Marx’s theory of value.  They go on to show the great strides that Marxist economics has made in the last 50 years in testing Marx’s theory against empirical reality. Most important, Tonak and Savran take to task various misleading theories about modern capitalism.  They show that ‘post-Fordism’, a concept that denies the role of the working class as an agency of change, was a baseless fiction.  They show the fallacy of the latest denial of the role of productive labour in generating surplus value in modern digital media companies.  And they point out that imperialism will remain a nebulous idea unless it is founded on the mechanisms of surplus value transfer from the poor periphery to the rich core of capitalist economies. Tonak and Savran show convincingly that Marx’s Capital remains the bedrock for understanding the laws of motion of capitalist production despite fashionable attempts to revise and refute his analysis. It still provides the only searchlight for guiding us towards a new social formation for humanity that is not based on exploitation of the many by the few, but brings human beings, other species and nature together in a world of cooperation and freedom.” (Michael Roberts, Author of “The Great Recession, The Long Depression and Marx 200”. He blogs at thenextrecession.wordpress.com)

“30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the capitalist world system is in a deep economic and /geo/political crisis. Liberal and conservative theories cannot explain the reasons and the prospects of this crisis. This book by Sungur Savran and E. Ahmet Tonak   is a great and topical reflection on this situation. The Marxist analysis presented reconstructs the world of Marx's Capital, one that contains theoretical guidance to a new world beyond capital. The volume reinforces a system-critical narrative. At the same time, the book is a major contribution to the intellectual-theoretical reorganization of the anti-capitalist left and to educating younger generations. It is an extremely important work in this latter respect, too. This is living Marxism.” (Tamás Krausz, Author of Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize-Winner “Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography”, editor of Hungarian Marxist journal Eszmélet)

“This valuable book includes carefully crafted contributions focusing on Marx’s political economy in general, and his theory of value specifically. From the structure of Capital to the creation of value to other critically important aspects of Marx’s analysis, all the way to empirical and historical topics illuminated by Marx’s theory: Savran and Tonak offer critical political economists a profound and scholarly volume. Indispensable.” (Alfredo Saad-Filho, SOAS University of London, University of Johannesburg, and LUT University)

“"In the Tracks of Capital" presents a comprehensive exploration of key themes in Political Economy relevant to contemporary economies. Authored by E. Ahmet Tonak and Sungur Savran, two political economists with international reputation, the book emerges from their deep-seated conviction that understanding and transforming the world necessitate a rigorous engagement with Political Economy. Originating from their involvement in the tumultuous struggles of 1968 and the 1970s in Turkey and in the United States, the authors embark on this journey not merely for personal absolution but as a means to unravel the complexities of our socio-economic systems. Structured in four Parts, the book delves into methodological issues relevant to Political Economy, Sociology, Political Science, and Philosophy. Part I explores the fundamental concepts of Das Kapital. Part II comprises four articles focusing on the measurement of surplus value and the welfare state, with a specific emphasis on the Turkish economy.. Part III tackles subtler aspects of modern capitalism, including the classification of production and non-production activities, the evolution of labor processes, and the current long-lasting recessionary state of the economy. Additionally, the authors examine the role of social networking companies like Facebook in the productive landscape. Finally, Part IV offers a critical review of neo-Ricardian economics from a Marxian perspective, contributing to ongoing debates in the field. The book's interdisciplinary approach and original contributions make it valuable not only to scholars in Political Economy but also to those in related disciplines such as the History of Economic Thought and Economic Growth and Development.” (Lefteris Tsoulfidis, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia)

“The book In the Tracks of Marx’ s Capital by Sungur Savran and E. Ahmet Tonak offers a new, critical, and insightful re-reading of Karl Marx’s magnum opus, including its preparatory work in the theoretical laboratory of the Grundrisse.   Specially focusing on the Marxian dialectical method of inquiry and exposition, the authors provide a compass both for exploring the vast new “Continent” in theory discovered by Marx, as well as for navigating in our turbulent times of a protracted, still unsolved global crisis of Capitalism in the 21st Century. The obvious failure of mainstream economics to confront the challenges posed by the global crisis is connected with the limits of this school, which the authors rightly and convincingly criticize, demonstrating the superiority of the discovery of the dialectics of motion of capitalist society by Marx leading to its revolutionary overcoming by Socialism.” (Savvas Michael-Matsas, University of Athens, Greece)

“This diverse collection of essays provides very valuable insights into Marx’s most important economic works, his place in the history of economics, and into important controversies among radical economists, along with several innovative empirical studies. In particular, Savran and Tonak demonstrate the vital connection between Marx’s scientific analysis of capitalism and his commitment to the struggle for its overthrow.” (Rick Kuhn is a member of Socialist Alternative in Australia. In addition to numerous other publications, he wrote the Deutscher Prize winning biography “Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism”, co-authored “Labor's Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class” and edited Class and Struggle in Australia)

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