Notes about the social metabolism of capital in István Mészáros

Abstract

This article intends to discuss the nature of the social metabolism of capital, identifying components and seizing internal dynamics. Within the framework of István Mészáros, the parts of this totalizing system of organization and social control – in its capitalist and post-capitalist versions – would be expressed in the tripod capital, labor and state. However, since such componentes were forged from elements already present in previous social formations, causing capital to have reached the domination of material production in parallel with the full development of its second order of mediations, a reflection that seeks to recover in a systematized way the historical and political path of constitution of the dominant social metabolism can be useful. For this, the article is based on work Beyond capital: towards a theory of transition, Mészáros, and the production of Karl Marx, especially the texts of the 1840s.