Spatial Theory of Capitalism: Escaping the Crisis
In his book Capitalism: A History of Short Duration, Kacper Pobłocki proposes an intellectual pivot: abandoning chronology in favor of the map. The spatial theory of capitalism defines the system not as an era, but as a relational network of power, labor, and money. Here, space is not a neutral backdrop but a product of social processes.
Global History: Dismantling the Myth of European Progress
The author performs a dismantling of the myth of European progress, rejecting the West as a universal model for development. History is not a linear ladder, but a tangled bush where modernity coexists with forms often dismissed as archaic.
Maps of Modernity: A New Geography of Global Connections
Pobłocki draws new maps of modernity, where Warsaw’s "Mordor" business district and Caribbean plantations lie on the same plane of exploitation. This is a geography of nodes and flows that renders traditional national borders obsolete.
Global Materialism: The Physical Limits of Accumulation
Global materialism anchors the analysis in the hard relations between people, labor, and place. It challenges the sovereignty of the nation-state, demonstrating that the logic of capital has long transcended political frameworks.
Land as a Fictitious Commodity: The Market Illusion of Resources
Land is a fictitious commodity—an element of nature incorporated into the market despite not being produced for sale. Its commodification generates fundamental instability in a system that treats the biosphere as a resource for exploitation.
The Urbanization of Capital: Transforming Cities into Profit
The process of the urbanization of capital has turned cities into massive real estate markets. Speculating on the value of space allows for the generation of profit detached from actual production, becoming a new engine of accumulation.
Ghost Acres: The Ecological Foundation of British Power
Economic growth was built on ghost acres—the resources of the New World and fossil fuels. These allowed Europe to break through ecological barriers and create the illusion of infinite growth.
The Commodification of Labor: Market Discipline of Human Energy
The commodification of labor transforms the existential expression of life into an exchangeable asset. The result is total alienation: labor is stripped of community and meaning, becoming merely a source of economic value.
Wage Labor: The Military Origins of Market Discipline
Pobłocki argues that wage labor has military origins. The first employees were soldiers, and the barracks provided the matrix for factory discipline, punctuality, and absolute obedience.
The Commodification of Time: The Market Colonization of Life
The system carries out the commodification of time, creating a "jagged temporality." The poor live in the uncertainty of tomorrow, while elites accumulate time and the future, turning hope into a financial instrument.
Money: A Social Institution and Tool of Power
Money is a social institution and a fragile agreement, not just a medium of exchange. Under capitalism, it serves as a tool of power and debt, allowing for the "liquefaction" of reality and the consumption of the future.
Economics as Ideology: A Scientific Tool of Dominance
Modern economics acts as an ideology for the elites. The complex language of finance is an access code that keeps society in a state of systemic illiteracy, masking the mechanisms of dispossession.
The State: The Political Foundation of the Monetary System
The state is the foundation of the system, not its opponent. Since the era of Mieszko I, control over currency has served to map the territory of power and integrate individuals into the ranks of debtors.
Spatio-Temporal Fixes: Postponing the Crisis
Capitalism manages its crises through spatio-temporal fixes. Financialization allows capital to unmoor itself from real societies and shift tensions to new regions of the global map.
A Supranational Community: An Alternative to Nation-States
The author advocates for the construction of a supranational community based on networks of reciprocity and a shared reproductive interest. Instead of borders, the map of the future should highlight nodes of cooperation in energy, care, and knowledge.
True economics is oikos-nomos—the rules for managing our common home, the planet. We must reject false national frameworks to reclaim labor and resources for society, creating a system that is modular and anti-imperial.
📄 Full analysis available in PDF