The Capital’s Revolutions

The volume proposes adopting the perspective of the “revolutions of capital” as a lens through which to reinterpret, in historical and political-philosophical terms, the shaping of the current digital revolution. The entry point for addressing the theme is the urban, an analytical prism for observing how capitalist revolutions have historically taken shape through the upheaval of a constellation of factors. By tracing genealogically the historical sequences that lead us today to speak of an ongoing “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” the volume shows, through seven ur-ban case studies, that a revolution of capital—far from being exhausted in a mere technological transformation (be it the steam engine, the railway, the Fordist factory, or Artificial Intelligence)—rather entails the redefinition of social relations, of the state form, and of powers within the world market. Lisbon, London, Berlin, Paris, Bologna, Barcelona, and Tallinn are examined here in order to retrace, from the late eighteenth century to the present day, the changing assemblages just mentioned, through an approach defined as “trans-urban.” This allows both for a longue durée perspective and for an appreciation of the discontinuities and ruptures that have marked this historical development.