Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2009

Soziologie kapitalistischer Dynamik

Christoph Deutschmann

May 2009

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Abstract

I address the "growth miracle“ (William Baumol) of modern capitalism. The central point is that the historically unique social dynamics of modern capitalism cannot be conceptualized satisfactorily by theories of “economic growth”; instead, the explanation requires a genuinely sociological approach. The first part of the paper gives a critical summary of the existing modernization-theoretical approaches and outlines an alternative theoretical perspective which is based largely on the interpretations of money by Simmel and Marx. The second part delivers a multi-level approach of capitalist dynamics which culminates in the construction of three growth scenarios, one positive and two negative ones. These scenarios could contribute to illuminating the background of the actual economic crisis.