Capitalism and petty‐bourgeois production: Class relations and divisions of labour

Abstract

The article first provides an exposition of an argument, proposed in an important recent paper by Peter Gibson and Michael Neocosmos, concerning the generation of petty commodity production by the essential relations of the capitalist mode of production. Second, it locates their position in relation to others that have dominated debates about the nature, forms and ‘functions’ of petty commodity production within contemporary capitalism. Third, it indicates in a preliminary way some of the implications of Gibbon and Neocosmos’ argument for questions posed, if not satisfactorily pursued, in those debates.

Notes

Wye College, University of London, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH. The work which produced this article has been greatly stimulated by discussion and correspondence with Harriet Friedmann, Peter Gibbon and Michael Neocosmos, over several years. The article first appeared in German in Peripherie, No.28, 1987.