Survival of Capitalism

by Henri Lefebvre

English, French (translation)

Genres: Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Henri Lefebvre was a French sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and philosopher, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space, and for his work on dialectics, alienation, and criticism of Stalinism, existentialism, and structuralism.

In his prolific career, Lefebvre wrote more than sixty books and three hundred articles. He founded or took part in the founding of several intellectual and academic journals such as Philosophies, La Revue Marxiste, Arguments, Socialisme et Barbarie, Espaces et Sociétés.

Lefebvre died in 1991. In his obituary, Radical Philosophy magazine honored his long and complex career and influence:
the most prolific of French Marxist intellectuals, died during the night of 28–29 June 1991, less than a fortnight after his ninetieth birthday. During his long career, his work has gone in and out of fashion several times, and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology, geography, political science and literary criticism.

Reviews

[Pepe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is only 128 pages, but my God, it is quite challenging especially in the first chapter of "The Reproduction of Social Relation of Production"-- too many nominal phrase. But this book is really progressive at the end with "Alternative" as Lefebvre offers some short-term practical solution to long-term ideological rethinking to the problems of capitalism, social relation in our current mode of production (that is capitalism), etc. I like his sassy remarks against (Herbert) Marcuse and so-called "intellectual leftist/Marxist" who happened to be "nowhere to find" in the problems of "analyzing the current situation of capitalism reconfiguration and space" in the post 1968 Paris and in the dawn of neolib era.

I really like his fourth chapter "What is Growth"; it's mesmerizing that in 1975-1976 Lefebvre already thought about the limit of capitalism to grow, the impossibility of growth, and I think he was among the first to remind us, according to Marxist tradition, what growth really is; enlarged accumulation. Bear in mind, in the 1970s, even the socialist groups/leftist still thought about growth. In disgust, Lefebvre called the hypocrisy of growth, and the high price we must pay to achieve that capitalistic "growth". Only in 2010s that a group of social scientists and economists published "Degrowth" manifesto. Another proof that Henri Lefebvre is the real OG of the thought and the most visionary Marxist of his time.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a short book but pretty dense. The first two chapters were difficult, especially considering I lacked familiarity with Lefebvre’s conception of space before engaging with this. Would definitely need a reread or two before I’m able to come anywhere close to a good grasp of the concepts here.

As of now (my first reading), I think chapters 3 and 4 were the most interesting and the sections that I best understood.

Some good reproaches of Althusser, the Frankfurt School, and of course (as in other Lefebvre I’ve read) official “diamat”.

[Eliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

In some way this book represents Lefebvre's thinking at it's best--clear and easy to understand if you have the basics of base/superstructure and dialectical materialism down. Unfortunately it's out of print.