Feature Article
Capitalism Is Over, But the New Is Worse: Reflections on Rent, Services, and Capitalist Feudalism
Abstract: “Yannis Varoufakis, Jodi Dean, and McKenzie Wark, among many other critical scholars, have recently argued that capitalism as we knew it in the twentieth century is in its terminal dead throw and that a new political economic configuration–variably termed techno-feudalism, capitalist feudalism, or just the new feudalism–has taken over. In contrast to the Marxist hope for a socialist dawn emerging in the twilight of capitalism’s decay, capitalist feudalism propels the contradictions of capitalism to new heights. Capitalist feudalism refers to the global dominance of a few global tech-players whose capitalization massively outstrips the GPD of most of the world’s countries, and who thrive on rent extraction, financialization, and the provision of commodified services extracted from the very users of these platforms. It refers to players like Google, Meta (formerly Facebook), Amazon, Alibaba, Tencents, etc… , whose wealth rests on rent extraction. At the same time, feudal capitalism rests on the inclusion of a small number of people in a high value chain whilst excluding much of the world’s population, rendering them supernumerary to its expanded reproduction. …”
Erik Swyngedouw. 2025. “Capitalism Is Over, But the New Is Worse: Reflections on Rent, Services, and Capitalist Feudalism.” In The Value of Place – Exploring Regional Development and Land Use Strategies, edited by F. Moulaert and A. Mehmood. Edward Elgar. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Erik-Swyngedouw-2.
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