Center for Global Studies (CGS)

Capitalism (CCCALL)

Capitalism in Context: Commodification and Appropriation of Land and Labor in the Modern World (CCCALL)

The research group CCCALL analysis the rise and spread of extractivist economies based on control over land and labor from the enclosure of common land in 16^th century Europe to the establishment of large estates and colonial plantation economies from the 17^th century onwards to recent processes of land grabbing. CCCALL relates the economic dimension of the commodification and appropriation of land to the transformation of gender dynamics and social relations, the involvement with specific regimes of power, the relation between free and unfree labor and to environmental change. Research combines local and regional approaches with perspectives on the incorporation of agricultural production and labor regimes in global value chains. Furthermore, it takes a particular interest in feminist perspectives on social reproduction. Finally, CCCAL focuses on the entangled origins of extreme wealth and extreme inequality based on the commodification and appropriation of land and labor.