[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-272820-105":59,"doc-detail-272820-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","capitalism-evolving-an-introduction-to-social-structure-of-accumulation-theory-mark-setterfield","Capitalism Evolving - An Introduction to Social Structure of Accumulation Theory - Mark Setterfield","","Capitalism Evolving presents a reflective analysis of Social Structures of Accumulation Theory and how it explains long-run capitalist growth. It argues that growth is shaped by distributional conflict and fundamental uncertainty, with decisions occurring between an immutable past and an open future. SSAT links long waves of roughly 50 years to the rise and decline of successive, stable social structures that reduce uncertainty, sustain accumulation confidence, and then weaken as institutional arrangements break down.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/capitalism-evolving-an-introduction-to-social-structure-of-accumulation-theory-mark-setterfield/272820/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/capitalism-evolving-an-introduction-to-social-structure-of-accumulation-theory-mark-setterfield/272820.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Stanley","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What fundamental forces shape capitalist growth in SSAT?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Capitalist growth is driven by distributional conflict and by fundamental uncertainty, since future outcomes are created through decisions made in partial ignorance.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do stable social structures of accumulation (SSAs) support accumulation?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"SSAT states that a stable SSA consists of mutually consistent institutions that reduce conflict and uncertainty, increasing firms’ confidence in realizing expected profits.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why do long waves appear in the growth record?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Long waves are explained by the rise and decline of successive stable SSAs: stability sustains rapid accumulation, while institutional breakdown undermines confidence and slows accumulation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},272820,1790174807,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},2336477405376,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Capitalism Evolving: An Introduction to Social Structure of  \nAccumulation Theory  \nBy Mark Setterfield ∗  \nIn this comment piece, Professor Mark Setterfield reflects on the current state and future of Social Structures of Accumulation Theory.  \nI. Conflict, uncertainty and fluctuations in growth: foundations of social structure of  \naccumulation theory  \nThe process of growth in a capitalist economy is riven by distributional conflict and fundamental uncertainty. In the first instance, capitalism can be understood as ‘contested terrain, characterized Edwards (1979) by various forms of non-cooperative rivalry: between individual firms in the process of market competition; between aggregate ‘capitals’ (such as industry and finance) for dominance of the corporate sphere; between state and capital, for control over social priorities; and between capital and labor, over the terms and conditions of employment. At the same time, economic activity necessarily takes place in the present, sandwiched between a given and immutable past, and a future that, rather than being the product of immutable laws, is yet to be created by economic decision makers.1 This gives rise to fundamental uncertainty – the idea that decision making takes place in a state of partial ignorance about the future, aspects of which do not yet exist and so are unknowable in principle.  \nConflict and uncertainty may be causally related. Hence uncertainty may provoke conflict while conflict, to the extent that its outcomes are indeterminate, can be a source of uncertainty. The two phenomena are also linked by the fact that neither conflict nor uncertainty are conducive to steady accumulation by capitalists in the pursuit of expected future profits.2 According to social structure of accumulation theory (SSAT), this is why the historical growth record does not resemble a steady or even process but is, instead, characterized by long-term fluctuations in growth – specifically, long swings or long waves of approximately 50 years in duration.  \nThe observation of long waves in the growth record is not new.3 Nor are efforts to explain long waves. Traditionally, these explanations have focused on technology clusters (Schumpeter, 1939; van Duijn, 1977, 1983) . But according to SSAT, the fluctuations in growth associated with long waves are associated with the rise and decline of successive social structures of accumulation (SSAs) .  \nII. SSAs and the growth process  \nIn order for firms to engage in accumulation in an environment of conflict and uncertainty, they they must be sufficiently confident in their ability to create and realize profit. In SSAT, what is functional to this confidence is the existence of a stable SSA: a mutually-consistent array of institutions set up to address and, in the process, ameliorate conflict and uncertainty. As used here, the term ‘institutions’refers to correlated behaviors of individuals and/or groups that recur under like circumstances – that is,‘proceduralist’ behavioral heuristics that specify ‘in event of conditions x, do y ’.4 So-defined, institutions encompasses what are variously referred to as norms, conventions, customs, rules, habits and even formal laws, and are understood to be transmutable but relatively enduring. They can and do change over time,  \n∗ Professor of Economics, New School for Social Research, [mark.setterfield@newschool.edu](mark.setterfield@newschool.edu).  \n1 From this perspective, choice and decision making are, in part, creative acts – akin to Schumpeterian innovation – asa result of which change is characterized by novelty.  \n2 This is not to say that conflict and uncertainty have no positive role to play in capitalist dynamics, however. As noted, uncertainty may be associated with innovation. Meanwhile, a ‘profit squeeze’ resulting from distributional conflict between capital and labor may spur technical change designed to reconfigure the technique of production (specifically, make it less labor-intensive) and","cbCaimFC9v4BgTBX","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimFC9v4BgTBX","pdf",183909,"English","# Conflict, uncertainty and fluctuations in growth: foundations of social structure of accumulation theory\n# SSAs and the growth process\n# SSAs, long waves, and ‘stages of capitalism’","[{\"question\":\"What fundamental forces shape capitalist growth in SSAT?\",\"answer\":\"Capitalist growth is driven by distributional conflict and by fundamental uncertainty, since future outcomes are created through decisions made in partial ignorance.\"},{\"question\":\"How do stable social structures of accumulation (SSAs) support accumulation?\",\"answer\":\"SSAT states that a stable SSA consists of mutually consistent institutions that reduce conflict and uncertainty, increasing firms’ confidence in realizing expected profits.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do long waves appear in the growth record?\",\"answer\":\"Long waves are explained by the rise and decline of successive stable SSAs: stability sustains rapid accumulation, while institutional breakdown undermines confidence and slows accumulation.\"}]","Capitalism Evolving - An Introduction to Social Structure of Accumulation Theory - Mark Setterfield | PDF",1789467767,13]