Capitalism

This chapter aims to provide a sociological review of the main interpretations of capitalism from the early days of sociology to the present day. To this end, it is divided into four parts. The first reconstructs the theme in the works of the main classics of the discipline, with the advent of industrial society. The second reviews the debate that advanced in the first half of the twentieth century, starting with ideas such as late capitalism and advanced industrial society, until the mid-1970s. The third recovers the theme of capitalism from the structural transformations in the 1970s, with the emergence of neoliberalism and the questioning of the centrality of the analytical categories of labour and class. The final part presents some of the main contemporary discussions on capitalism, especially since the 2008 crisis, such as the emergence of digital and platform capitalism, the phenomenon of “uberization”, the emergence of new forms of authoritarianism, and the new proposals of utopian socialism today.