Regulating viral capitalism: four stages in a pathology of accumulation
Search for other papers by David Whyte in
Current site
Google Scholar
This paper analyses the ecology of SARS-CoV-19 as a phenomenon of capitalist political economy. It argues that the biological conditions that allowed the virus to emerge must be understood within a broader set of concrete political and economic conditions. At every stage in the emergence and spread of the virus, we can observe its mediation through the processes of capital accumulation. The paper therefore argues that the emergence and the spread of SARS-CoV-19 can be understood as a ‘pathology of accumulation’. Regimes of capital accumulation always depend upon complex regimes of regulation. Wherever capital seeks to accumulate, it must be nurtured and supported by states. The rate and scale of capital accumulation depends on how access to common resources, labour, public wealth and public infrastructures is guaranteed, regulated and policed by states. The paper therefore seeks to analyse the regimes of accumulation that produce zoonotic pathogens like SARS-CoV-19, across four ‘moments’ or stages: release (in predatory practices of capitalist development); amplification (in the upscaling of industrial farming); spread (in sites of social concentration); and medical intervention (in the commodification of testing and vaccination regimes).
-
Aglietta, M. (2000) A Theory of Capitalist Regulation: The US Experience, London: Verso.
-
Barlow, J. and Lees, A. (2019) Amazon fires explained: what are they, why are they so damaging, and how can we stop them?, 23 August, Conversation, https://theconversation.com/amazon-fires-explained-what-are-they-why-are-they-so-damaging-and-how-can-we-stop-them-122340.
-
Benjamin, W. (2007) Critique of violence, in P. Demtz (ed) Walter Benjamin: Reflections, New York: Schocken.
-
Bittle, S. and Stinson, L. (2019) Corporate killing law reform: a spatio-temporal fix to a crisis of capitalism?, Capital and Class, 43(2): 251–70. doi: 10.1177/0309816818780644
-
Bright, S., Tarrant, K., Matharu, H., Colbert, M., Bata, D. and Overton, I. (2021) Mapping the pandemic: the £3 billion Conservative gold rush, Byline Times, https://bylinetimes.com/2021/03/29/mapping-the-pandemic-1-billion-in-contracts-awarded-to-conservative-donors/.
-
Brooks, R. (2021) Profits of doom: the companies and middlemen who cashed in on COVID… and how they did it, 12–25 November, Private Eye, 1560.
-
Carrillo, I. and Ipsen, A. (2021) Worksites as sacrifice zones: structural precarity and COVID-19 in US meatpacking, Sociological Perspectives, 64(5): 726–46. doi: 10.1177/07311214211012025
-
Chad, R. and 10 other authors (2020) Impact of international travel and border control measures on the global spread of the novel 2019 coronavirus outbreak, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(13): 7504–09. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2002616117
-
Christidis, P. and Christodoulou, A. (2020) The predictive capacity of air travel patterns during the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic: risk, uncertainty and randomness, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17: 3356, doi: 10.3390/ijerph17103356.
-
Coleman, R., Sim, J., Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (eds) (2009) State, Power, Crime, London: Sage.
-
Corporate Watch (2021) Vaccine capitalism: a run-down of the huge profits being made from COVID-19 vaccines, https://corporatewatch.org/vaccine-capitalism-a-run-down-of-the-huge-profits-being-made-from-covid-19-vaccines/, (Accessed: 20 Dec 2021).
-
Davis, M. (2005) Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu, New York: OR Books.
-
Davis, M. (2020) The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu and the Plagues of Capitalism, New York: OR Books.
-
Espiner, T. (2021) AstraZeneca to take profits from COVID-19 vaccine, 12 November, BBC News.
-
Flocks, J. (2020) The potential impact of COVID-19 on H-2A agricultural workers, Journal of Agromedicine, 25(4): 367–69. doi: 10.1080/1059924X.2020.1814922
-
Foucault, M. (1976) History of Sexuality, Volume 1: Introduction, New York: Pantheon.
-
George, M. (2020) Socio-cultural determinants of the spread of COVID-19, Health and Primary Care, 4: 1–2, doi: 10.15761/HPC.1000189.
-
Gramsci, A. (1996) Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Vol 1, London: Lawrence and Wishart.
-
Greger, M. (2006) Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, New York: Lantern Books.
-
Haines, F. (2011) The Paradox of Regulation: What Regulation Can Achieve and What It Cannot, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
-
Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J. and Roberts, B. (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging the State and Law and Order, London: MacMillan.
-
Harcourt, B. (2011) The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
-
Holst, H., Fessler, A. and Niehoff, S. (2021) COVID-19, social class and work experience in Germany: inequalities in Work-related health and economic risks, European Societies, 23(Suppl 1): S495–S512, doi: 10.1080/14616696.2020.1828979.
-
James, P. (ed) (2021) HSE and Covid at Work: a Case of Regulatory Failure, Liverpool: Institute for Employment Rights.
-
Karnon, J. (2020) A simple decision analysis of a mandatory lockdown response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, 18(3): 329–31. doi: 10.1007/s40258-020-00581-w
-
Khoury, S. and Whyte, D. (2021) Human rights for profit: the system-preserving tendencies of the regional human rights courts, Capital and Class, doi: 10.1177/03098168211005054.
-
Kim, T. (2018) Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: ‘Is curing patients a sustainable business model?’ 11 April, CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html.
-
Knox, R. and Tzouvala, N. (2021) International law of state responsibility and COVID-19: an ideology critique, Australian Yearbook of International Law, 39(1): 105–21.
-
Kovel, J. (2002) The Enemy of Nature: the End of Capitalism or the End of the World?, London: Zed.
-
Kuchler, H. and Williams, A. (2021) COVID-19 vaccine makers warn US to reject patent waiver, 26 April, Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/fa1e0d22-71f2-401f-9971-fa27313570ab.
-
Libardi, M. (2019) Leaked documents show Brazil’s Bolsonaro has grave plans for Amazon rainforest, 21 August, democraciaAbierta, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/leaked-documents-show-brazil-bolsonaro-has-grave-plans-for-amazon-rainforest/.
-
Lun Tian, Y. and Stanway, D. (2000) China’s fur farms see opportunity as countries cull mink over coronavirus fears, 3 December, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-mink/chinas-fur-farms-see-opportunity-as-countries-cull-mink-over-coronavirus-fears-idUSKBN28D0PV.
-
Mallapaty, S. (2021) The search for animals harbouring coronavirus - and why it matters, Nature, 591: 26–8.
-
Malm, A. (2020) Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the 21st Century, London: Verso.
-
Mann, M. (1984) The autonomous power of the state: its origins, mechanisms and results, European Journal of Sociology, 25(2): 185–213. doi: 10.1017/S0003975600004239
-
Maron, D. (2020) Denmark to cull 15 million mink after coronavirus spillover into humans, 4 November, National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/denmark-mink-culling.
-
Maron, D. (2021) What the mink COVID-19 outbreaks taught us about pandemics, 24 February, National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/what-the-mink-coronavirus-pandemic-has-taught-us.
-
Marriott, A. and Maitland, A. (2021) The Great Vaccine Robbery: pharmaceutical corporations charge excessive prices for COVID-19 vaccines while rich countries block faster and cheaper route to global vaccination, The People’s Vaccine, https://webassets.oxfamamerica.org/media/documents/The_Great_Vaccine_Robbery_Policy_Brief.pdf?_gl=1*1g58wlt*_ga*MTM2MjMyNTIzMi4xNjI5OTczMjgz*_ga_R58YETD6XK*MTYzNTUwNTEwNC45LjAuMTYzNTUwNTEwNi41OA.
-
Masters, B. (2021) The vaccine system is broken, but COVID-19 shows us a fix, 21 October, Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/4082414f-3635-4f37-90ed-a26c2f489c26.
-
Maxmen, A. and Mallapaty, S. (2021) The COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know, 8 June, Nature, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01529-3. doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-01529-3
-
Mbembe, A. (2019) Necropolitics, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
-
Meyer, D. (2021) If a COVID-19 vaccine does turn out to be dangerous, who’s on the hook? 7 April, Fortune, https://fortune.com/2021/04/07/covid-vaccine-safety-is-astrazeneca-safe-coronavirus-vaccination-liability/.
-
Middleton, J., Reintjes, R. and Lopes, H. (2020) Meat plants: a new front line in the COVID-19 pandemic, BMJ, 370: m2716, doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2716.
-
Mikulic, M. (2019) Leading pharmaceutical companies and total global vaccine market share 2017 and 2024, Statista, August 9th, https://www.statista.com/statistics/348702/leading-global-pharmaceutical-companies-by-vaccine-market-share/.
-
Molloy, C. (2020a) Coronavirus: Boris Johnson is easing a lockdown that didn’t exist for millions of Britons, 12 May, Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/12/boris-johnson-lockdown-work-guidelines.
-
Molloy, C. (2020b) Don’t buy the lockdown lie: this is a government of business as usual, 1 May, Open Democracy, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/dont-buy-the-lockdown-lie-this-is-a-government-of-business-as-usual/.
-
Murray, A. (2020) Coronavirus: Denmark shaken by cull of millions of mink, 11 November, BBC News Online.
-
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) (2021) OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19). The Territorial Impact of COVID-19: Managing the Crisis and Recovery Across Levels of Government, Paris: OECD.
-
O’Neill, R. (2020) Pieces of meat: Tory COVID-19 blundering putting millions of workers at risk, Hazards, 150, https://www.hazards.org/coronavirus/piecesofmeat.htm.
-
Polomarkakis, K. (2020) Beyond COVID-19: towards a European health union, European Journal of Risk Regulation, 11(4): 864–83. doi: 10.1017/err.2020.86
-
Rafeemanesh, E., Ahmadi, F. and Memarzadeh, M. (2020) A review of the strategies and studies on the prevention and control of the new Coronavirus in workplaces, Archives of Bone and Joint Surgery, 8 (Suppl1): 242–6.
-
Rosemberg, M. (2020) Health and safety considerations for hotel cleaners during COVID-19, Occupational Medicine, 70(5): 382–83. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa053
-
Saitone, T., Schaefer, K. and Scheitrum, D. (2021) COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in US meatpacking counties, Food Policy, 101: 102072, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33846663/. doi: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102072
-
Silva Junior, C., Pessôa, A., Carvalho, N., Reis, J., Anderson, L. and Aragão, L. (2021) The Brazilian Amazon deforestation rate in 2020 is the greatest of the decade, Nature Ecology and Evolution, 5(2): 144–45. doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-01368-x
-
Sim, J. and Tombs, S. (2022) Narrating the coronavirus crisis: state talk and state silence in the UK, Justice, Power and Resistance, 1(1).
-
Sim, J., Scraton, P. and Gordon, P. (1987) Introduction: crime, the state and critical analysis, in P. Scraton (ed) Law, Order and the Authoritarian State, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
-
Solomon, E. (2021) BioNTech lifts revenue forecast as COVID-19 vaccine orders climb, 9 November, Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/6e3fe0b9-60db-4d55-9790-ef81e1f65cce.
-
Sönmez, S., Apostolopoulos, Y., Lemke, M. and Hsieh, Y. (2020) Understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the health and safety of immigrant hospitality workers in the United States, Tourism Management Perspectives, 35: 100717.
-
Spring, J. (2021) Brazil’s Bolsonaro obstructs environmental fines key to protecting Amazon, 2 July, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-environment-fines-insight-idUKKCN2E80YU.
-
Taylor, P. (2020) COVID-19 and Call/Contact Centre Workers: Intermediate Report, Glasgow: Unversity of Strathclyde.
-
Tombs, S. (2016) Social Protection After the Crisis: Regulation without Enforcement, Bristol: Policy Press.
-
Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2007) Safety Crimes, Collumpton: Willan.
-
Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2014) Toxic capital everywhere: mapping the coordinates of regulatory tolerance, Social Justice, 41(1–2): 80–100.
-
UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) (2021) The story behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine success, 30 November, https://www.ukri.org/our-work/tackling-the-impact-of-covid-19/vaccines-and-treatments/the-story-behind-the-oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-success/.
-
UNCTAD (2020) Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade and development: transitioning to a new normal (UNCTAD/OSG/2020/1), New York: United Nations.
-
Valencia, S. (2018) Gore Capitalism, South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e), https://monoskop.org/images/5/5b/Valencia_Sayak_Gore_Capitalism_2018.pdf.
-
Vitale, A. (2017) The End of Policing, London: Verso.
-
Wallace, R. (2016) Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches On Infectious Disease, Agribusiness and the Nature of Science, New York: Monthly Review Press.
-
Wallace, R. (2020) Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-19, New York: Monthly Review Press.
-
Whyte, D. (2009) Crimes of the Powerful: A Reader, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
-
Whyte, D. (2018) The Autonomous corporation: the acceptable mask of capitalism, Kings Law Journal, 29(1): 88–110. doi: 10.1080/09615768.2018.1475847
-
Wiebers, D. and Feigin, V. (2020) What the COVID-19 crisis is telling humanity, Neuroepidemiology, 54: 283–86, doi: 10.1159/000508654.
Search for other papers by David Whyte in
Current site
Google Scholar
| May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 372 | 100 | 61 |
| Full Text Views | 1034 | 326 | 1 |
| PDF Downloads | 544 | 91 | 2 |
Institutional librarians can find more information about free trials here
We are a leading social science publisher
committed to making a difference.
Bristol University Press and
Policy Press
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk