History, Theory and Politics: On Uno Kozo’s Theory of Crisis

October 28, 2022

Event Description

"In this talk, I discuss how Uno’s Theory of Crisis can inform and guide the analysis of capitalism’s historical crises, and how it gives us a theoretical grasp of Marx’s Capital that emphasizes the concepts of labour-power, excess capital, and surplus populations. In this regard, Uno’s Theory of Crisis is very different from orthodox Marxist approaches to Capital. Finally, I discuss the political implications of Uno’s Theory of Crisis for us today."

Speaker | Ken C. Kawashima

Ken C. Kawashima is Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of East Asian Studies, and the author of The Proletarian Gamble: Korean Workers in Interwar Japan (2009). He is co-editor with Robert Stolz and Fabian Schaeffer of Tosaka Jun: A Critical Reader (2014); and the English translator of Uno Kōzō’s Theory of Crisis (2021, Brill Publishers; 2022, Haymarket Publishers). Articles of his include: ‘Capital’s Dice-Box Shaking’ (2005, Rethinking Marxism) and ‘The Hidden Area between Marx and Foucault’ (2019, in positions: asia culture critique); ‘The Revolutionary and Anti-Capitalist Politics of the late Foucault’ (SAQ, forthcoming fall 2022); and ‘On Marx’s Capital and W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction (Historical Materialism, forthcoming). He researches and teaches Marxist political economic theory; the histories of capitalism in Japan and colonial Korea; the critique of ideology, everyday life and racism; and theories of the subject. He also composes, sings and records blues music as Sugar Brown.

This event is organized by Hyun Ok Park (Sociology, York University). This event is presented by the Korean Office for Research and Education (KORE) at York University, which is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto and the Marxist Studies in Global and Asian Perspectives (MSGAP) at York University.